Illegal logging sharply declines in Indonesia: Minister

Indonesian Minister of Forestry MS Kaban claims that illegal logging cases have continued to decline across the archipelago in the last four years because of the decrease in large-scale illegal logging thanks to intensive law enforcement.

"Our data shows a decline of illegal logging cases, especially those of larger scale," Kaban told a forest conference in Bali on Thursday.

The two-day conference organized jointly by the Asia Forest Partnership (AFP) and the Center for International Forestry Research (Cifor) was attended by about 275 participants from 50 countries. The 8th meeting of the AFP focused on topics of illegal logging and REDD.

Kaban said in the 1990s, there were 9,600 cases of illegal logging compared to only a few hundred in the last four years.

"While we still need to keep an eye on large-scale illegal logging, emphasis should now be given to smaller scale cases which are greater in number. Even more worrying is the increasing trend in illegal trafficking of wild animals," he said.

Illegal logging has long been the main cause of forest degradation in Indonesia, as the world's third-largest forest country, with about 120 million hectares.

Forest degradation contributes about 20 percent to global greenhouse gas emissions.

Climate change has been the vehicle that has returned forestry to center stage of the international agenda for the past three years, with the climate change conference in Bali in 2007 adopting the reduction of emissions from reforestation and forest degradation (REDD) mechanism as an alternative way of cutting emissions from forests.

Source : http://www.thejakartapost.com