Conservation expert issues warning over Sumatra rainforest

Wildlife, ecology and conservation expert Jeff Corwin has warned that the rainforests on the Indonesian island of Sumatra will disappear in less than a decade if deforestation continues at its current rate.

In a talk on protecting endangered species at Monroe Community College in Michigan, Mr Corwin said that the situation appears bleak, as global deforestation sees a mass of plants, trees and animals the size of the UK cut down every hour, the Agora reports.

He stated that 60 per cent of all life resides in rainforests and that humans harvest 40 per cent of medicines from them.

"We know that we are about nine and a half years from all forests being gone on Sumatra," Mr Corwin told delegates.

He pointed out that chopping trees down releases carbon into the atmosphere and holds ambient heat in, which then radiates down on the planet.

One country stepping up its efforts to stop deforestation is Nepal.

Information minister Shankar Pokharel told AFP recently that four officials have been suspended amid reports that widespread illegal logging has seen more than 100,000 hectares destroyed in the last couple of months.

Written by Carolina Oberoi

Source: www.coolearth.org

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

Rainforest Damage

Indonesia is one of worst countries in the world for deforestation of rainforest. The Rainforest Foundation plans for reforestation combined with eco developments that will help protect and regrow the Indonesian Rainforest . The Foundation will work with landowners and other environment groups to protect the forests from illegal and destructive logging by reforestation programs and provide active employment of the local inhabitants

Greenpeace says that between 2000 and 2005 Indonesia had the fastest rate of deforestation in the world, destroying an area the equivalent to 300 soccer fields every hour. Greenpeace has successfully applied to the Guinness Book of World Records to have Indonesia’s status as the world Number One in rainforest deforestation acknowledged in the 2008 edition of the Book Greenpeace says that the citation in the 2008 Guinness World Records will read:

“Of the 44 countries which collectively account for 90% of the world’s forests, the country which pursues the highest annual rate of deforestation is Indonesia with 1.8 million hectares (4.4 million acres) of forest destroyed each year between 2000-2005; a rate of 2% annually or 51 square km (20 square miles) destroyed every day”

Greenpeace says that Indonesia’s rate of forest destruction also makes the country the third-largest emitter of greenhouse gas pollution after the United States and China because some scientists say that up to 25% of greenhouse gas emissions comes from tropical forest clearance
Large-scale commercial logging threatens to cut through Indonesia's last intact forest, in Irian Jaya or Papua due to large-scale commercial logging.

"A handful of companies have wiped out much of Indonesia's forests. They must be stopped from finishing off our last intact forests in Papua. The Indonesian government must put in place a moratorium on large-scale commercial logging activities in the intact forest landscapes of Indonesia, starting with Papua, until national and local forestry policies have been reviewed, proper landscape planning has been conducted and a significant increase in protected areas have been established," said Emmy Hafild, Executive Director of Greenpeace Southeast Asia

Figures from the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry show that at the end of 2005, the government has already granted Hak Pengusahaan Hutan (HPH) or logging concessions on 11.6 million hectares of forests in Papua to 65 logging companies

"More than a quarter of the forests in Papua have been sold off to logging companies. Each of these concessions (HPH) last between 20 to 30 years. If the Indonesian government does nothing to stop logging concessions, soon all of our forests will be gone," said Christian Poerba, Executive Director of Forest Watch Indonesia.

Much of the large intact forest landscapes in the Paradise Forests of Asia Pacific have already been cut down -- 72% in Indonesia and 60% in Papua New Guinea - fuelled by demand for cheap timber by Japan, the US, the EU and China. In Papua New Guinea, the situation is desperate where 57% of intact forest landscapes are also covered by logging concessions.

Greenpeace recently released groundbreaking satellite maps which reveal that the world's forests are in critical condition. The maps provide evidence that less than 10% of the Earth's land area remains as large intact forest areas. New Guinea Island (Papua and PNG), or what is now being called the 'Garden of Eden', contains the largest remaining area of intact forest in the Asia Pacific region.

"These maps provide new, important evidence to governments of the need to improve ancient forest protection all over the world, and in particular here, where the forests are being cut down faster than any other on Earth," said Ms Hafild.

Rain forests create their own mini-climates as the water that evaporates from the rainforest forms clouds above the rainforest area. It will later falls as rain in another location. Not all of the water stays local but in the Amazon rain forest, 50-80% of the water remains in the local ecosystem's water cycle. When rain forests are cut down, much of the moisture in the ecosystem is lost, leading to droughts and further devastation of species.

Problems of Biofuel

Indonesia plans to become the world's largest producer of biofuel from Palm oil production from palm oil trees
This so called ecological redevelopment will accelerate the deforestation process as biofuel is considered environmentally friendly for the environment.
However in Indonesia, rainforest land is slashed and burnt to create space for planting new oil palms trees. Also companies prefer to slash and burn more forest for the purpose of planting palms than to use already cleared land.

More carbon dioxide is actually emitted in this process than is spared by using the eco-friendly fuel by this process.
The Foundation will replant some devastated plan tree plantations wherever possible.

Source: www.indonesianrainforest.org

Oil palm expansion in Indonesian Borneo increased 400-fold from 1991-2007

by. Adianto P. Simamora

The Jakarta Post, 30 Oct 2008

Annual forest conversion to palm oil plantations increased 400-fold from 1,163 hectares in 1991 to 461,992 hectares in 2007 in Central Kalimantan, on the island of Borneo, reports a new report published by Forest Watch Indonesia, a local NGO. 

The study — highlighted Thursday in The Jakarta Post — found that 816,000 hectares of forest in the province was cleared for palm oil plantations in 2006. About 14 percent of the province's 3 million hectares of peatlands had been converted into palm oil plantations by 2007. Peatlands store large amounts of carbon which is released into the atmosphere when the wetlands are drained, cleared, and planted with oil palm. 

The report also looked at forest clearing in Riau, on the island of Sumatra, and Papua, which is part of New Guinea. In Riau, 38.5 percent of its total forest area has been allocated for conversion into plantations, of which 1.5 million hectares consisted of palm oil plantations. In Papua, 480,000 hectares had been cleared and allocated for growing oil palm. 

The report showed that logging continues to be an important source of forest loss and degradation. It also highlighted the role of government resettlement programs in deforestation, including 773,331 hectares of forest in Riau converted into transmigration areas, and 375,203 hectares in Papua.

Article Source:  www.mongabay.com

Indonesia May Allow Conversion of Peatlands for Palm Oil

The Indonesian government will allow developers to convert millions of hectares of land for oil palm plantations, reports The Jakarta Post. The decision threatens to undermine Indonesia's efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from land use and fashion itself as a leader on the environment among tropical countries. 

Gatot Irianto, head of research and development for the Agriculture Ministry, said the department is drafting a decree that would allow the drainage and conversion of peatland areas into oil palm estates. 

“We still need land for oil palm plantations. We must be honest: the sector has been the main driver for the people’s economy,” he told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of a meeting organized by the National Commission on Climate Change. 

“We’ve discussed the draft with stakeholders, including hard-line activists, to convince them that converting peatland is safe,” he said. “We promise to promote eco-friendly management to ward off complaints from overseas buyers and international communities.”

Degradation and destruction of peatlands in Indonesia results in hundreds of millions of tons of greenhouse gas emissions each year. Generally, developers dig a canal to drain the land, extract valuable timber, then clear the vegetation using fire. In dry years these fires can burn for months, contributing to the "haze" that plagues southeast Asian with increasing frequency. Fires in peatlands are especially persistent, since they can continue to smolder underground for years even after surface fires on extinguished by monsoon rains. 

While burning releases enormous amounts of carbon dioxide, merely draining peatlands also contributes to global warming — upon exposure to air, peat rapidly oxidizes, decomposes, and releases carbon dioxide. A study led by Dr. Susan Page University of Leicester found that producing one ton of palm oil on peatland generates 15 to 70 tons of CO2 over 25 years as a result of forest conversion, peat decomposition and emission from fires associated with land clearance. 

Indonesia is home to some 20 million hectares of peatlands, which store billions of tons of carbon. Clearance, drainage and fires in peatlands worldwide accounts for more than 3 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions every year, or about 10 percent of global emissions, according to Wetlands International, an environmental group. 

Given the emissions associated with conversion of peatlands, some environmentalists are pushing for oil palm expansion on degraded and abandoned agricultural lands. Indonesia has tens of millions of hectares of such lands that would be suitable for oil palm cultivation, but industry has been slow to move because plantation owners usually rely on logging to subsidize the up-front cost of planting. 

Indonesian political leaders have lately acknowledged the significance of peatlands to climate stability. Several governors have decreed temporary bans on peatland forest conversion, while President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is said to be preparing measures to more sustainably manage peatlands after declaring a country-wide ban on peatland development in December 2007. In is unclear how the Agriculture Ministry's proposal will affect these plans. 

Environmental groups expressed concern over the announcement. 

"We think it is a crazy proposal," Martin Baker, communications manager at Greenpeace International in Asia, told Reuters. 

"The government needs to protect the remaining peatlands and forests if we are to slow down climate change and protect the livelihoods of forest-dependent communities and biodiversity," Greenpeace forest campaigner Yuyun Indradi told The Jakarta Post.

Article Source: www.mongabay.com