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FOREST CONSERVATION NEWS TODAY
Record Biodiversity in Threatened Indonesian Forests
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February 8, 2002
OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY by Forests.org
A new study indicates Indonesia’s Sumatran lowland tropical forests
are amongst the most biodiverse plant assemblages in the World.
Tragically, this amazing biodiversity and ecological complexity are
doomed – as they are being cut for timber and pulp by small-scale
illegal loggers and international corporations. Ancient primary old-
growth forests are too precious to be commercially logged or left
unprotected from criminal enterprises any longer, anywhere, for any
reason. WWF – who carried out the survey – are the biggest promoters
of logging ancient forests under certification to save them.
Commercial logging of Indonesia’s last primary old-growth forests –
even if certified - is not the answer to their forest crisis. The
emphasis should be upon forgiving debt, paying for establishment of
strictly protected areas, eliminating markets for old-growth forest
products, engaging people in massive regional ecological restoration
projects, and helping local peoples carry out eco-forestry activities.
The era of commercial scale old-growth logging is over – forever and
everywhere. Its time to let governments and predatory loggers know
this in no uncertain terms.
g.b.
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ITEM #1
Title: Record diversity in threatened Indonesian forest
Source: Cable News Network
Date: February 6, 2002
Byline: Nick Easen in Hong Kong
TESSO NILO, Indonesia -- Lowland tropical forest on the island of
Sumatra, one of the world's most biologically diverse, could disappear
within four years if logging continues its current rate.
The Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) told CNN that a 1,800 sq km area
of pristine Indonesian forest could disappear under a sea of acacia
trees and oil palm if the logging is not stopped.
"Unfortunately, it is earmarked as a production forest and there are 3
to 4 companies logging for timber and pulp in the area," Nazir Foead,
a WWF Indonesian coordinator told CNN.
"Last year over a six day period we observed 1,200 illegal logging
trucks leave the forest with 10,000 cubic meters of logs, we want the
logging to stop."
Although the Ministry of Forestry has announced a crack down on
illegal logging, the practice, which according to the WWF involves
communities, bureaucrats, military personnel and global market
interests, still continues unabated.
The sun sets on one of the world's most diverse forests as flames
rise from clear cutting -- the worst form of logging.
Tesso Nilo is one of Sumatra's single largest remaining blocks of
lowland rainforest and is home to a wide range of wildlife including
elephants, tigers, gibbons, and even tapirs.
On satellite images, the area can be seen as a green island surrounded
by a sea of clear-cutting and plantations.
As settlements moved deeper into what was once rainforest, elephants
began encroaching on human activity, and researchers and
conservationists began focusing on the area.
"We needed to make the elephants stay in the forest, yet their habitat
was being used for acacia trees and oil palm," says Foead.
"We then realized the importance of this forest and did a survey."
More diverse than Amazon
The new field survey has shown that the Tesso Nilo has more diversity
than "anywhere else including the Amazon."
Foead reiterated that they have yet to sample in the most pristine
area due to accessibility.
The survey done by WWF scientists showed that it contained up to 218
vascular plant species in just one single 200 square meter plot.
This is nearly twice as high as the previous number of 114 species
recorded using the same sampling technique elsewhere in Sumatra.
It is also much higher than other humid, tropical lowland forests that
have been evaluated in 19 other countries, including Brazil, Cameroon,
New Guinea, and Peru.
"I am proud that the world's richest forest, Tesso Nilo, is located in
the Riau Province.
This heritage should be safeguarded," said the Governor of Riau, H.E.
Saleh Djasit in a statement.
"However, situations in Riau are complex, and I am prepared to support
all parties involved to come up with agreeable solutions."
A future for Tesso Nilo?
"We urge the government of Indonesia to act now and set aside the
Tesso Nilo forest as a protected area for the good of future
generations," Agus Purnomo, Executive Director of WWF-Indonesia has
said.
"Indonesia has a rare opportunity to make an invaluable contribution
to conservation, which the global community would certainly welcome,"
he added.
Yet time may be running our for Tesso Nilo, "within seven and a half
years all the trees in the forest will be logged, based on our
investigation," Foead told CNN.
"The World Bank, has given the Sumatran forest less time, its says
that by 2005 the forest will be gone," he added.
Yet the WWF is being more realistic about the abolition of logging
within the area, recognising this is not realistic instantly, but only
within three years and that the greatest threat comes from clear-
cutting of forests rather than from selective logging.
The logging that threatens Sumatra is part of a pattern across
Indonesia, the WWF says, where large financially troubled
corporations, often with foreign ownership, liquidate standing forests
for a tiny fraction of their true economic potential and without
regard to their biological value.
The WWF, headquartered in Gland, Switzerland, also urged consumer
countries, particularly the G-8 group of industrialized nations, to
stop the international trade in illegal timber.
ITEM #2
Title: Record-Breaking Forest Found, Considered Endangered
Source: Inter Press Service
Date: February 5, 2002
Byline: Danielle Knight, Inter Press Service
WASHINGTON, Feb 4 (IPS) - Scientists announced Monday they had found
the world's richest lowland forest but warned the area could disappear
within three years because of logging.
A tropical lowland forest on the Indonesian island of Sumatra harbors
twice as many plant species per area as any other lowland forest in
the world, according to results of a field survey released Monday.
''No published records are available anywhere that show similar levels
of plant species elsewhere in the world's lowland forests,'' said
Andrew Gillison, author of the report and head of the Australia-based
private sector Centre for Biodiversity Management, which conducted the
survey with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), a Swiss-based international
advocacy group.
Tropical forests have long been known to hold the planet's richest
terrestrial biological diversity. But this 1,600-square-kilometer
tract of forest, known as Tesso Nilo, was found to contain an
extraordinary wealth of flora, said Gillison. In just one 200- square-
meter plot, researchers found 218 vascular plant species, or plants
with a system of vessels to transport sap.
This was nearly twice the highest previous number of 114 species
recorded using the same measuring technique elsewhere in Sumatra, he
said. It was also much higher than tropical lowland forests in 19
other countries, including biologically-rich nations like Brazil,
Cameroon, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Peru, and Thailand, WWF said in
a statement.
''In short, no lowland forest known to science comes close to matching
the hyper-richness of species diversity in Tesso Nilo, also home to a
wide range of wildlife including elephants, tigers, gibbons, and even
tapirs,'' according to WWF.
The new findings focused new urgency on saving the forest block that
is being cut for timber and pulp by small-scale illegal loggers and
international corporations, said Claude Martin, director general of
WWF.
The Tesso Nilo is one of Sumatra's single largest remaining blocks of
lowland forest, a type of forest so endangered that the World Bank
predicted last year it would be gone entirely by 2005. Gillison said
that even that forecast could be too optimistic. Tesso Nilo, he
warned, may be gone in less than three years.
''Giant tress were literally falling down around us as we took
measurements and counted plants,'' said Gillison.
Concerned about the loss of elephant habitat, WWF asked the government
of Indonesia in October 2001 to set aside almost 200,000 of the Tesso
Nilo forest as a protected area. Since then, the number of illegal
logging vehicles and camps inside the forest has been steadily
increasing, said the environmental group.
Meanwhile, said WWF, the Indonesian company Riau Andalan Pulp and
Paper (RAPP), began clear-cutting Tesso Nilo in order to convert the
land into pulp and acacia plantations for pulp.
RAPP has told WWF that its logging was legal but researchers said it
was unclear whether the company had official permission, since the
government of Indonesia declared a moratorium on any natural forest
conversion in 2000. Martin said clear-cutting has continued despite
Indonesian foreign ministry announcements in December and January that
illegal logging will not be tolerated.
Chris Barr, a forest policy scientist at the Indonesia-based Centre
for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), said that Indonesian
timber and pulp companies were only part of the problem. He said the
economic reforms driven by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and
World Bank in the aftermath of Indonesia's 1997-98 financial meltdown
have encouraged speculative investment in the forest sector and have
increased timber harvesting by debt- ridden Indonesian pulp and paper
companies.
Bank and IMF officials have acknowledged that some things could have
been done better but they dispute the environmentalists' conclusions.
In signing an IMF emergency financing package in 1998, the Indonesian
government committed itself to a course of export-led growth. The
package also included a number of policy reforms aimed specifically at
restructuring Indonesia's forestry sector.
However, said Barr, the World Bank's proposed reforms largely
overlooked expansion of Indonesia's pulp and paper industries and
timber plantation efforts.
''This lack of attention is paradoxical given that over 12 billion
dollars has been invested in these industries since the late 1980s and
Indonesian pulp mills consumed over 100 million square meters of wood
from natural forests between 1998 and 1999,'' said Barr.
Environmentalists have also blamed export credit lending agencies
based in Europe, Japan, and North America for encouraging
deforestation in Sumatra by supporting Indonesian pulp and paper
facilities without requiring any environmental safeguards or
assessments.
The Indah Kiat pulp and paper facility, for example, consumes 200
square kilometers of old-growth tropical forest per year because its
accompanying tree plantations are not yet mature, according to
Stephanie Fried, a scientist at Environmental Defense, a New York-
based advocacy group.
The Indah Kiat mill, which is owned by the company Asia Pulp and
Paper, was financed through a 500-million-dollar investment package
supported by Canadian, Finnish, Swedish, and Spanish export finance
institutions, said Fried, who has conducted research in Sumatra.
German and U.S. agencies also provided loans and guarantees to the
project under separate arrangements.
Over the past 12 years, Indah Kiat has deforested 278,000 hectares, an
area the size of Luxembourg, according to CIFOR.
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