Indonesia’s forests

Global News 2010

 * UK partners with Indonesia to fight climate change, 29 January The UK joins forces with the Indonesian government to tackle deforestation and prepare Indonesians for the impacts of climate change topic

Over the last two decades Indonesia has lost about 30% of its forest land. Forests now cover 60% per cent of Indonesia.

Current rates of deforestation will result in Indonesia losing a further 16 million ha of forest by 2020 or an area just over the size of England and Wales. This would result in an additional 11,000 Mega tonnes of CO2e; or roughly twice the UK’s effort to reduce emissions 26% by 2020.

But

Deforestation rates in Indonesia are declining. The current rate is estimated to be only one third of that recorded in the 1990s (World Bank, 2009).

Between 1990 and 2000, 21 million hectares of forest were lost but 12 million hectares were added. The Ministry of Forestry currently plans to reforest 33 million hectares of degraded land.

The vast majority of deforestation in Indonesia is planned and legal and takes place on land allocated for economic development i.e. mostly for timber harvesting or conversion to agriculture.

Illegal logging, at around 150,000 ha of deforestation annually, accounts for less than 12% of deforestation in Indonesia. 8% of deforestation occurred in protected areas.

Since 2001, oil palm has expanded at a rate of 273,000 ha per year. There are currently around 7 million hectares of established plantations, with plans to double this in 10 years. Refocusing new oil-palm plantations away from areas of natural forest onto already degraded land could help cut Indonesia’s emissions by 30%.

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