The forests of Indonesia, along with the thousands of animals and plants that live there, are facing grave danger as they are destroyed at an alarming rate due to massive illegal logging and clearing for palm oil and acacia plantations. Indonesia houses the largest rainforest in all of Asia - the largest stands of tropical forest remaining in the world after the Amazon and the Congo. The rapid deterioration of tropical forests is causing an incalculable loss in terms of biodiversity and is pushing species such as the orangutan ever closer to extinction.

As recently as the 1960s, a little over 80 percent of the country was forested. Since then, however, illegal logging, industrial scale forest conversion for  plantations, government corruption and unscrupulous companies  have combined to create the conditions for a massive land and resource grab that is moving across the island chain, wiping out  forests, species and communities that stand in their path. Today, Indonesia has the highest rate of deforestation on earth and just under half of its original forest cover remains.

Worldwide, degradation and conversion of tropical rainforests is responsible for twenty percent of all annual greenhouse emissions. Because of the destruction of its rainforests, Indonesia alone accounts for about six to eight percent of global emissions. That's more than the emissions from all the cars, planes, trucks, buses and trains in the U.S. combined. Indonesia peat-forests hold up to 300 tons of carbon per hectare. This huge carbon footprint from forest destruction has made non-industrialized Indonesia the third-largest global greenhouse gas emitter, behind only the U.S. and China.

 

Indonesia rainforest destruction threatens the global climate.

Indonesia is one of the five most species-diverse countries in the world, home to 12% of all mammal species, 16% of all reptile and amphibian species, and 17% of all bird species. It also contains 33% of insect species, 24% of fungi species, and 10% of higher plant species. Tanjung Puting National Park (TPNP), site of Camp Leakey, is home to more than 220 bird species, at least 17 reptile species, and 29 mammal species.

 

Natural forests of Sumatra are the only home of the endangered Sumatran tiger and elephant and critical habitat for orangutans.

Indonesia is home to over 300 Indigenous cultures and  742 different languages and dialects. Thirty million people rely directly on the forest for their livelihood.  The  survival of hundreds of Indigenous cultures are threatened when their forests are destroyed or  their lands are appropriated for industrial pulp  and  palm oil plantations.

In league with government officials, many companies initially dangle glittering promises of development to get communities to give them access to  their forests. Communities that resist are sometimes forcibly removed.  Sadly most Indigenous and forest peoples  end up worse off than before, trapped on plantations where their only employer or civil authority is the company that destroyed their forest, traditional  livelihoods and culture.


 

Forest sustains up to 30 millions people, and among them 300 indigenous groups.

The pulp and paper industry, led by the privately owned Sinar Mas Group's Asia Pulp and Paper and Raja Garuda Mas Group's - APRIL, is perhaps the leading threat to the remaining large natural forests in Sumatra - the only home of the endangered Sumatran tiger and elephant and critical habitat for orangutans - and  some of  Indonesia's largest  intact peatlands. Pulp from cleared rainforests  and the acacia plantations that have taken their place is being made into cheap copy and printing paper, tissue and toilet paper luxury shopping bags.

 

Many of the forests being cut down for paper and palm oil are on peatlands that store massive amounts of carbon.