STATE OF THE RAINFOREST 2014
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export destinations being China, the EU, Japan and Korea. A recent
agreement (VPA) with the EU is aimed at stopping illegal logging,
but the effect remains to be seen.
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Indigenous peoples (masyarakat adat) are recognized by the
Indonesian Constitution, but this has not been reflected in other
laws and regulations. Thus, the rights of indigenous peoples
and other forest communities have in practice been very weak.
A Constitutional Court decision from 2013 may improve this
significantly, if it is followed by changes in regulations and policies.
The Court ruled that forest communities’ traditional, ‘adat’, forest
should not be considered ‘state forest’, as has been the case until now.
This may strengthen indigenous peoples’ and forest communities’
rights to their traditional land. A major effort is now underway
by indigenous peoples and Indonesia’s national Human Rights
Commission to conduct hearings into abuses of traditional land-
rights, as one important step on the long way to implementation of
the Constitutional Court ruling.
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Reduction of deforestation rates in Indonesia is a question of
governance.
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Historically, forest management in Indonesia has
been characterized by widespread corruption, and use of forest
concessions as a means of securing political support for people
in power. Indonesia’s outgoing President, Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono, committed to reduce emissions from deforestation
significantly, and this was manifested through a one billion USD
bilateral REDD+ agreement between Indonesia and Norway. As
a part of the cooperation, important reforms are initiated in the
forest sector. A significant step was the 2011 moratorium on new
concessions in primary forest and peatland. The moratorium was
renewed in 2013, but Indonesia’s high deforestation rate shows
that the impact on the ground has been slow. The implementation
of forest reforms in Indonesia is influences by the power struggle
between those who support changes, and powerful commercial and
political groups gaining from continued deforestation. The reforms
initiated, however, signals political will to reform forest governance
and to take measures against uncontrolled deforestation. As this
publication goes into print, Indonesia’s Vice President has just
launched a program to recognize and protect indigenous peoples as
part of Indonesia’s REDD+ program.
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea has one of the world’s most signi cant tropical
wilderness areas. With about 10,200 endemic plant species, the
island of New Guinea clearly rates as a globally signi cant reservoir
of biodiversity.
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Papua New Guinea is also a country of enormous
cultural diversity; its 7 million people speak more than 800 languages.
Despite its rich natural resources and significant government revenue
from large-scale extractive industries, the country is almost at the
bottom of UNDP’s Human Development Index. Social indicators
such as education, life expectancy and maternal and child mortality
rates are among the lowest in the Asia–Pacific region.
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According to the FAO, PNG has 287,000 km
2
of forest, and the
annual deforestation has been less than 0.5% the last two decades.
But also in PNG there is substantial uncertainty with regard to extent
of forest and deforestation rates. The “State of the Forests report for
Papua New Guinea” from 2008 estimates the forest to be 330 000
km
2
, and concludes that that between 1972 and 2002, 29,000 km
2
of
forest had been lost. The current deforestation rate was estimated to
be as high as about 1.41% per year.
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Commercial logging causes 48.2% of the forest loss, and extensive
clear-felling, often followed by the development of plantations, is
now a major characteristic of forest management. In many areas, it
is largely unregulated. Logging operations has been characterised as
“wasteful, with little regard for forest ecology, ecosystem function or
silvicultural practices which reduce impact and enhance regeneration.”
Strip mining and other intensive mining developments also creates
