The president of Indonesia vowed last week during a conference in Jakarta to dedicate the last three years of his administration to protecting the nation's rainforests, according to the Center for International Forestry Research.
In attendance were 1,000 government, business and society leaders, along with foreign donors, and CIFOR reported that the president's move was met with broad support. Indonesia is home to the third-largest tropical forest in the world.
Citing Ministry of Forestry data, CIFOR said Indonesia is losing about 1.1 million hectares of forests each year, mostly due to unsustainable logging that includes the conversion of forests to plantations for palm oil and the pulp and paper industry. It is also partly due to large-scale illegal logging, which is estimated to cost Indonesia about $4 billion annually.
"If it weren't for the benefits that our forests provide, then our way of life, our people, our economy, our environment and our society would be so much the poorer," President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said. "Our success in managing our forests will determine our future and the opportunities that will be available to our children."
In related news, the U.S. forgave nearly $30 million in Indonesian debt on Thursday, diverting the funds to bolster tropical forest conservation on Borneo, according to the Jakarta Globe. The "debt-for-nature" swap is authorized under the U.S. Tropical Forest Conservation Act, which was crafted to mitigate climate change by reducing deforestation that releases carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas.
