Protecting Indonesia's Rainforests

Indonesia’s Rainforests – Keeping Our Planet A Little Cooler

Indonesia is home to some of the most ecologically important stands of tropical rainforest in the world. Between providing habitat for important species and keeping a wealth of carbon out of our atmosphere, these unique ecosystems have everything – everything but protection, that is. And North American paper demand is helping drive their destruction.

Animals from Our Story Books

The biodiversity of Indonesia’s rainforests is among the planet’s highest: orangutans, tigers, elephants and rhinos all call them home. These days, home is a pretty risky place. All of these mammals, and countless other species, are listed as critically endangered, due largely to habitat destruction from deforestation.

Indonesia’s forests contain:

• 10% of the world’s mammal species

• 16% of our planet’s bird species

• 11% of earth’s plant species

Logging these rich biospheres simply for pulp and paper, then replacing them with acacia tree and palm oil plantations, is the forest equivalent of paving paradise to put up a parking lot. The Sumatran elephant population might become extinguished in the Bukit Tigapuluh Forest Landscape thanks to a new plantation recently approved by the government. And of the 500 or so remaining Sumatran tigers, it is estimated that at least 20% live on unprotected land at high risk for logging.

Carbon Emissions

Breakneck bulldozing

Indonesia is deforesting at an alarming rate – 40% of its forest has disappeared in the last 50 years. The country’s greenhouse gas emissions account for almost 5% of the global total[1], and about 85% of that comes from deforestation and land use. Almost singlehandedly, then, this process has made a still largely rural country the world’s third largest emitter of greenhouse gases, second only to China and the US.

Why is Indonesian deforestation having an especially negative impact on our climate?

Indonesia’s rainforests are unique in their carbon-storage capacity. In addition to the trees, the peat in which they grow is a carbon sponge. When drained to support fast-growing palms and other plantation trees, the peat decays quickly, releasing its stored carbon into the atmosphere.

The Forest Stewardship Council considers forests growing in peat deeper than 25 centimetres to be of High Conservation Value. In Indonesia, rainforests frequently grow in peat more than 10 metres deep. That’s some deep peat! Some of the deepest anywhere, in fact.

The UK government-commissioned Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change found that “curbing deforestation is a highly cost-effective way of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.” When you factor in its peat, that’s especially true for Indonesia’s forests.

The Paper Trail to Canada and the US

About 30% of Indonesia’s rainforest loss is linked to pulpwood plantations[2]. Rainforest cleared for palm oil plantations also end up in paper products. China is taking an increasingly large market share of world paper production and sources much of its pulp from Canada’s forests and Indonesian rainforests and plantations. A recent report by the Rainforest Action Network[3] found that 90% of US children’s book publishers carried books that contained fibres stemming from rainforest destruction. Other studies show similar results for European children’s books[4].

Canopy Takes on Indonesian Rainforest Loss

In this International Year of Forests, Canopy is expanding its forest scope, appropriately enough, internationally. We’ve started campaigning to help conserve Indonesia’s rainforests, species and the world’s climate.

How? By helping North American publishers, printers and other large companies develop and implement environmental policies that prohibit the use of pulp from these important forests, Canopy will create the market incentives that have led to landmark conservation initiatives such as the Great Bear Rainforest Agreement and Boreal Forest Agreement.

Photo credits:

Sumatra - © David Gilbert

Elephants - © WWF

Bulldozing - © Greenpeace

Endnotes:

[1] “Indonesia’s greenhouse gas abatement cost curve” Dewan Nasional Perubahan Iklim, Indonesia (http://www.dnpi.go.id/report/DNPI-Media-Kit/reports/indonesia-ghg_abatement_cost_curve/Indonesia_ghg_cost_curve_english.pdf).

[2] http://www.globalforestwatch.org/english/indonesia/forests.htm

[3] Rainforest Action Network, Turning the Page on Rainforest Destruction, 2010

[4] Hirschberger, Peter, et al. October 2009. Tropical Forest Destruction for Children’s Books: An Analysis of the German Book Market. Frankfurt, Germany: WWF Germany.