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Indonesia Tops World’s Deforestation List
November 24, 2011

A forest is cleared for land by burning in Peranap, Indragiri Hulu regency, Riau province, Indonesia (Dimas Ardian/Bloomberg) A forest is cleared for land by burning in Peranap, Indragiri Hulu regency, Riau province, Indonesia (Dimas Ardian/Bloomberg)
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Kesiangan
11:09am Nov 26, 2011

Hurray, another gold medal for Indonesia!

DrDez
5:26am Nov 26, 2011

JPB

I agree in part - the minerals/forests should be managed

BUt to just stop them loses maybe 10 million Indonesian jobs and a huge amount of revenue and we are not creating many jobs for the 5 or 6 million entering employment age as it is - great plan for a man who so vehemently opposes Greenpeace BTW..

But protectionism like nationalism is bad and always fails - monopolies (like SOE's) are corrupt and inefficient and that is what you promote. In the short term it might look great but get beyond a few years and it will backfire. That is especially true when there is so much kkn

Last year Roland we did the long drive and it was gross for us. Its maybe 10 years since I last drove that route so you can imagine the horror


Roland
10:03pm Nov 25, 2011

@muffinman - I see with my own eyes many times a year how deliberate deforestation in Sumatra is conducted.

I need to drive at least every second month by car to Medan, and apart of the fact that I am passing hundreds of kilometres of palm oil tree plantations on this trip, have to take over an incredible amount of trucks transporting felled trees (huge pieces mostly from old trees) and most devastating for me, at times deforested areas, completely bare as far the eye can reach (heavens knows how many hectares in one of these areas)...

justapasserby
9:44pm Nov 25, 2011

deforesting, like mineral mining, are things that can be done/posponed in the future while still keeping the value of the product intact, or even in case of minerals, with a rising price. We should just keep the forest and the minerals as security, for when the time is rough. Keep the trees in the forest and the minerals underground. For the immediate future try developing the industry, or agriculture.. Of course, we cant develop local industry if foreign companies came flooding us with their products. Thats why government should for example make RIM open their messenger protocol to local handphone manufacturers so that they can compete in the blackberry messenger user market, which is huge. RIM is now practically selling their phones not because of its quality, but mainly because people want to connect with their friends who previously use blackberry. This means they dont have any incentive for innovation. This is not good. And DrDez, this is not anti foreigner rant, but pro progress.

Kesiangan
9:18pm Nov 25, 2011

Be patient please. SBY is writing a song about this.

Singapore. Nigeria, Indonesia and North Korea have the world’s highest rates of deforestation while China and the United States, the top two greenhouse gas polluters, have the lowest, a global ranking released on Thursday shows.

Growing demand for food and bio fuels, rising populations, poverty and corruption are driving deforestation in many developing countries, said risk analysis and mapping company Maplecroft, which compiled an index for 180 countries.

The company used the latest data from the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization to calculate changes in the extent of overall forest cover, and in primary and planted forests between 2005-2010.

Those at the top are ranked extreme risk. Extreme risk countries are losing plant and animal species that help provide benefits such as clean air from forests, watersheds for rivers and mangroves that protect coastlines, services that help underpin economies.

Australia is ranked tenth and listed as high risk, while India, Vietnam and Spain are at the bottom, with low risk. Brazil is ranked number 8.

“Deforestation can also hamper efforts for a country to reduce their carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions as forests play key role in mitigating global climate change through carbon sequestration,” told Maplecroft analyst Arianna Granziera in an email.

Forests soak up and lock away large amounts of CO2, helping act as a brake on climate change. Yet deforestation is disrupting this cycle and is responsible for at least 10 percent of mankind’s annual greenhouse gas pollution.

The index comes days before the start of major UN led climate talks in South Africa in which delegates are expected to discuss ways to try to curb emissions from deforestation.

Indonesia is losing about 1 million hectares (2.5 million acres) of forest a year. That’s about 13 times the size of Singapore, with palm oil expansion accounting for about 16 percent of deforestation, Maplecroft said.

The government in May began a two-year moratorium on issuing new licenses to clear primary forests and peat lands and will conduct regular satellite surveillance to monitor the ban.

Brazil’s deforestation fell to 2.2 million hectares annually between 2005-2010 but green groups worry changes to national forest protection laws awaiting Senate approval could ease restrictions on the amount of rainforest farmers can clear.

Green group WWF said on Wednesday approval of the revised laws could open up vast amounts of forest to agriculture and cattle ranching.

Nigeria, ranked first in the index, lost just over two million hectares of forest annually between 2005-2010 driven by agricultural expansion, logging and infrastructure development.

While China was the best performer because of aggressive protection laws and replanting schemes, it was driving deforestation in other countries, Granziera said.

“China’s demand for wood is fueling increasing imports, much of which comes from the USA and Canada, but illegal imports from Brazil, Cambodia and other developing countries have been reportedly increasing,” she said.

Reuters