Background

Indonesia has benefited greatly from their vast natural rainforests but it came at a devastating price because millions of acres of rainforests were cut down. About 85 % of pollution in Indonesia comes from cutting down trees making Indonesia the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases. Those forests of Indonesia have helped the nation's economic growth immensely but all those tropical forests were turned into paper, lumber, and hardwood furniture. Krisdomo, the head of the Forest Stakeholders Association in Indonesia says that although a lot of forests have been destroyed, it has not benefited the local people and they still live in poverty and around 150,000 hectares of forest were destroyed by poor villagers trying to survive.

Location

Deforestation in Indonesia is destroying the people’s natural environment which is occurring mainly in Borneo and other bigger islands. Villagers and communities rely on these forests as a primary source of food and shelter, and when loggers move in and clear away the forests; a lot of wildlife is driven out, making it harder for these communities to find food. Many Indonesians live with this constant threat of illegal logging which is killing their forest and they would do anything to stop it. The Environmental Investigation Agency provided some villagers of Indonesia with secret filming equipment to provide them evidence to arrest the illegal loggers. The EIA hopes those films will increase investigations into illegal logging and increase overall awareness on this major issue.

Development

Deforestation in Indonesia is a major problem that needs to be stopped but with Indonesia’s corrupt government it will take more than a few villages to convince their government that what they are doing is wrong. It all started when large scale logging of timber in Indonesia began as a follow up of establishment of the Basic Forestry Law in 1967, when all Indonesian forests were declared state property. This started the mass deforestation and also created the timber boom in the 70’s, which made Indonesia the world’s biggest raw log exporter. In the mid 80’s, government of Indonesia started to establish policies which supported the development of pulp and paper industries which also greatly increased deforestation rates and destruction of their forests. All of those events prove that Indonesia’s government could care less about their natural environment and only cares about making money. I believe the only way to stop deforestation in Indonesia is for the people to speak up and strike against the depletion of their natural rainforests and for other countries to step in too and save the last of our very few true natural rain forests.

Time line:

In 1966, 75% of Indonesia territory or 144 million hectares were still covered by forest.

In 1967, The Basic Forestry Law constituted a legal instrument facilitating commercial access to and development of income streams from legal rights to forest resources.

In 1980, government restricted log export and begun to promote plywood industry development.

In 1982, satellite aerial photos taken by Indonesia government showed that the forest coverage in Indonesia has decreased to 92.4 million hectares.

In 1982, when the oil was declined in price, the forestry sector became the second highest contributor to foreign exchange in Indonesian economy after oil and gas sector.

In 1983, five hundred and sixty private companies held the Forest Concession for 65.14 million hectares of the forest area which exceeded the total area of production allotted in the Forest Land Use Allocation.

The deforestation rate estimated from 1982 to 1993, have reached 2.4 million hectares per year.

By 1983, 560 logging concessions had been granted on 65.4 million hectares, more than the total area of Indonesia’s production forests stated in the Forest Land Use Policy.

In the end of the 90’s, Indonesia was the biggest producer in the world for plywood and managed to fulfill 75% of the world market demands.

In 1996, Indonesia exports of palm oil products have increased 32 % since the last five years, and were worth more than $ 1 billion.

Impact

Indonesia needs to stop the deforestation of their forests. Indonesia's forests are being destroyed by many human activities like logging, mining operations, large-scale agricultural plantations, colonization, and subsistence activities like shifting agriculture and cutting wood for fuel. Also the rainforest cover has steadily declined since the 1960’s when 82% of the country was covered with forest to now where there is only 49% covered today. The effects from deforestation have been devastating and include irregular river flows, soil erosion, reduced yield from of forest products, and destruction of native’s forests which they desperately rely on. Pollution from chlorine bleach used in pulp bleaching and run off wastes from mines has also damaged many river systems and cropland. Also, wildlife hunting has reduced populations of many species including the orangutan which is endangered, Bali and Javan tigers which are now extinct, and the Javan and Sumatran rhinos which are on the brink of extinction. Today, just under half of Indonesia is forested and between 1990 and 2005 the country lost more than 28 million hectares of forest. Its loss of biologically rich primary forest prevented research of new species of many plants and animals which might have been used to cure or prevent new diseases. Today Indonesia's forests are some of the most threatened on the planet and will soon be destroyed at this rate of deforestation. If Indonesia stopped deforestation not only would it stop the increase of global warming and greenhouse gases, but it would give researchers a chance to discover many new species and help crate medicines and save hundreds of lives around the world.

Top 3 deforestation concerns:

The effects from deforestation, which have been devastating and include irregular river flows, soil erosion, reduced yield from of forest products, increase of greenhouse gases, and destruction of natives forests which desperately rely on.

Pollution, pollution from chlorine bleach used in pulp bleaching and run off wastes from mines has also damaged many river systems and cropland.

Destruction of natural habitats, wildlife hunting has reduced populations of many species including the orangutan which is endangered, Bali and Javan tigers which are now extinct, and the Javan and Sumatran rhinos which are on the brink of extinction.

Future

Indonesia desperately needs to change and stop deforestation because if they don’t Indonesia's forests will face a very grim future. Some has been done to try to stop deforestation like having nearly 400 protected forested areas but the protection of these reserves is virtually nonexistent. Also with Indonesia’s magnificent wildlife, forests, coral reefs, cultural attractions, and warm seas, Indonesia has tremendous potential for eco-tourism, but little is actually done to promote it. Also, tourism itself has caused social issues and environmental problems from forest clearing, mangrove development, pollution, and resort construction. I believe very little more can be done to save Indonesia’s forests. I believe all they can do now is to prepare for the future and many people will have to make big sacrifices. Natives will either have to move somewhere else or adapt to their new environment without the forests. Thousands of people will lose their jobs in the logging industry because everything will be already cut down which will drastically lower their economy. Also without having that steady flow of money from the logging sector, Indonesia might have an economic depression and more and more people will lose their jobs and go into poverty. I believe the only way to face this horrible future of Indonesia is to prepare and if this horrible future ever does come true at least the people of Indonesia will be ready for it.

Hyperlink: http://www.enn.com/wildlife/article/31854

Short Summary of current event:
The article talks about how deforestation in a single Indonesian province is releasing more greenhouse gases than the Netherlands, and the loss of habitats is threatening rare tigers and elephants. It also talks about the Riau province which covers one fifth of Indonesia's Sumatra island, had lost 65 percent of its forests in the past 25 years as companies used the land for pulpwood and palm oil plantations. The Article also talks about how the number of Sumatran elephants and tigers in the province plunged as the forests vanished. It also says how the “Sumatra's elephants and tigers are disappearing even faster than their forests" and that’s because when they are driven from the forests, they come more often into conflict with people and they are killed.

Big Picture

I believe Indonesia isn’t the only country with deforestation as a major problem. Brazil is a lot like Indonesia and their deforestation problem too. About 60-70% of deforestation in the Amazon results from making room for cattle ranches while the rest mostly results from small-scale subsistence agriculture. I believe that Brazil is facing very similar problems just as Indonesia like the decline of species, tremendous loss of forest coverage, native problems, and pollution too. This directly relates to the theme Human-Environment Interaction because it's about how the people of Brazil and Indonesia interact with their environment. Too bad the interaction with the environment isn't always positive; Indonesia has lost about half of the forest they originally started off with and has one of the highest deforestation rates in the world. But one positive thing about these two countries is actually proving to other countries that they shouldn’t follow the same road as they did. They’re proving to them that they should instead promote eco-tourism and other eco-friendly activities and recreations to promote tourism and earn their income that way. These two countries are in a way, a good example to other countries to show that how much harm deforestation has caused them and that they shouldn’t do the same thing as they did.