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Rapid Forest Loss
DEFORESTATION IN INDONESIA
Spanning 90 million hectares (225 million acres), the forests of Indonesia constitute 10 percent of the world's remaining tropical forests and provide people with a variety of benefits and ecosystem services. For instance, local communities rely on the forests for food, medicine, freshwater, and building material. The global community relies on them for carbon sequestration, timber, and tourism. In addition, the forests of Indonesia are a biodiversity "hotspot," with new species discovered every year.
These forests are under threat. Since 1990, approximately 25 percent of the country's forests—about 28 million hectares or 70 million acres—have been cleared. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, the country has the second highest amount of annual forest loss of any nation, losing approximately 1.9 million hectares (4.7 million acres) per year. Deforestation has significant implications for people, biodiversity and the climate. Forest-dwelling people are losing their traditional ways of life and nearby communities are losing sources of food, clean water, and protection from flooding. Deforestation is threatening species including the Sumatran tiger, the orangutan, and many others with extinction. Furthermore, according to some estimates, deforestation and the burning of peat in swamp forests has made Indonesia the third largest global emitter of greenhouse gases in the world.
Logging for timber and wood pulp has been a major driver of deforestation in Indonesia for many years. But oil palm plantations have recently emerged as a leading threat to the country's remaining virgin or primary forests. From just 600,000 hectares in 1985, oil palm plantations have exploded to more than 6 million hectares in 2007 (15 million acres).
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