Indonesian Rainforest on Brink of Extinction

No tree is allowed to be chopped down in Indonesia's protected tropical rainforests -- at least that's what the law says. But the law is not being followed. In Indonesia, every year, about a million hectares of rainforest disappear -- at the rate of about two and a half football fields worth a minute. The timber ends up in pulp and saw mills.

The depletion of the tropical forests is taking a heavy toll. Natural disasters now belong to Indonesia's sad daily reality. Whether diluvian floods in Aceh, high tides in Jakarta or landslides on Java, the cause is the same -- the disappearance of the forests along with their water-preserving function.

Denny Purba, a lawyer and environment activist from Medan, has no doubt about who's to blame for the deforestation: "It's a kind of organised crime. The ones making the money are the ones who own the companies, the money. It's a combination between the business people who have money, the people who have power and the people who control security."

International wood market

For years, exotic woods from the protected tropical forests have been landing on the international market. The Harvard graduate can't understand why European consumers aren't more careful when buying furniture and checking whether certificates are authentic.

He says fake certificates can be easily bought "on the streets without any proper documentation" and that they are obtained by bribery too.

According to the gloomy forecasts of the World Wildlife Fund, Indonesia's tropical rainforest, as well as many unique species of flora and fauna, could soon become fully extinct.

Paradox of bio-fuel

An emerging ecological development might actually accelerate the process. Indonesia is hoping to become the world's largest producer of bio-fuel.

Paradoxically, however, to produce the bio-fuel which is considered particularly environmentally-friendly in Europe the environment in Indonesia has to be damaged even more. Land is usually slashed and burnt in order to create space for planting new oil palms.

More carbon dioxide is actually emitted in the process than is spared by using the eco-friendly fuel. Marianne Klute, an expert on Indonesia, explained that people prefered to slash and burn more forest for the purpose of planting palms than to use already cleared land.

Big bucks

"The most important reason is that money can be made in many ways," Klute said. "One from the expensive tropical wood, which continues to be a significant source of income, two from the cheaper timber, which goes to the paper and pulp industry, and third from the land which has been burnt and degraded."

"Money can then be obtained from the Reforestation Fund to replant the land. So money can be made again and again from the same plot of land."

For the local people of North Sumatra, the wealth of resources is considered more of a curse than a blessing. Since colonisation began over four hundred years ago, others have profited from Indonesia's natural resources. Whereas the locals haven't seen much more than a daily wage. Not much is likely to change until the last tree has been cut down.