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Saturday, March 12, 2011

Reforestation Challenges

The Foundation’s Complex Issues

“The blame for the deforestation lies with those making the money from the illegal deforestation ...these are the ones who own the companies….it's a combination between the business people who have money, the people who have power and the people who control security”

Indonesian law states that no tree is allowed to be chopped down in Indonesia's protected tropical rainforests. But the law is not being followed and properly enforced. In Indonesia, every year, about a million hectares of rainforest disappear and the timber ends up in pulp and saw mills for illegally exported timber

The International wood market has for many years used the exotic woods from the protected tropical forests for the international market. European and western consumers should be very careful when buying furniture and to check whether certificates are authentic. Fake certificates can be often purchased so it is important to be sure of correct documentation
The World Wildlife Fund states that “Indonesia's tropical rainforest, as well as many unique species of flora and fauna, could soon become fully extinct”.

The Gunung Leuser National Park is the home of thousands of endangered plant and animal species and is one of the last patches of rainforest left in Indonesia. The depletion of trees and burning have brought this rainforest area to the brink of extinction
The depletion of the tropical forests is taking a heavy toll with regular occurrences of natural disasters by floods in Aceh, high tides in Jakarta or landslides on Java.
The cause is the always the same due to the disappearance of the forests along the waterways with their water preserving function.

The Foundation Challenge

Agricultural expansion, logging, mining and uncertain land tenure are the primary threats to the old-growth forests. Farmers are clear-cutting the forest to create permanent agricultural plantations while local people are using wood from the forest to meet both their basic needs and generate income.

Without clear ownership of property and ongoing sustainable rights, settlers and indigenous people in these regions have little incentive for long-term sustainable agriculture and forestry practices.

Rainforests are amazing and exotic places full of ecological and mineral treasures but continued unsustainable exploitation of these riches is quickly destroying the rainforests

The foundation challenge is to create sustainable management programs that will empower the local community to preserve the rainforest

Source: www.indonesianrainforest.org

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