Forest remaining in Indonesia 1900–2000

FWI/GFW (2002)

Indonesia was still densely forested as recently as 1950, but between then and 2000 c.40% of the country’s forests was cleared (FWI/GFW 2002), and this rate of loss is accelerating (see figure). Approximately 10,000 km² of forest were cleared annually in the 1980s, rising to c.17,000 km² per year in the early 1990s. Since 1996, deforestation has increased to an average rate of 20,000 km² per year. These losses are concentrated on non-swamp lowland forest, the type richest in biodiversity. Between 1985 and 1997, Sumatra lost 29% of its forests, and Kalimantan 22% (Holmes 2000). Unless the rate of deforestation is reduced or halted, non-swamp lowland forest in Sumatra will disappear by 2005, and in Kalimantan by 2010 (Holmes 2000). Indonesia’s forests are being felled for timber and wood-pulp (c.40 million cubic metres per year; FWI/GFW 2002), and the land is then converted to other uses such as oil palm plantations. Indonesia’s production capacity for wood-pulp and paper has grown by 700% since the late 1980s, and is at a level that cannot be met by any form of sustainable forest management (Bryant et al. 1997). This growth has been achieved mainly through illegal logging and land clearance. Around 73% of log production in Indonesia is illegal and occurs outside designated forestry concessions (Holmes 2000).