Sumatran Deforestation Study Gives World Wake-Up Call

JATAN
Today, it may not directly affect the physical and socioeconomic environment of the U.S. as much as it does some developing countries, but deforestation anywhere deserves some attention, and not just from tree huggers. It accounts for about one fifth of carbon dioxide emissions worldwide, after all, and a study from the WWF (World Wildlife Fund) this month finds that deforestation in one Indonesian province generates more carbon emissions in a year than the Netherlands do.

The study discovers that turning Riau province’s forests and peat swamps into pulpwood and palm oil plantations not only drives local tigers and elephants closer to extinction, but also contributes significantly to climate change. Over the past 25 years, around 65% of the Indonesian island’s tropical forests and peatland have been cleared away to make way for industries. Today, forest covers only 27% of Riau. Forest loss, land degradation, peat decomposition and forest fires have contributed to approximately 0.22 gigatons of average annual CO2 since 1990. Australia emits less in a year than Riau does. These astronomical figures can be attributed partly to the global surge in biofuel demand.

In the wake of the UN climate change conference in Bali this past December, when negotiators urged developed countries to pay Indonesia to cut down fewer trees, and Indonesian officials vowed to create incentives for reducing deforestation, hope remains. Although it’s still too early to tell how committed Indonesian leadership will be to this issue, it’s nevertheless been a little more exciting than the U.S.’s winding road to finally accepting binding emissions cuts—provided that China and India do the same.

While the problem of overall deforestation isn’t as overlooked as the UK’s Independent claimed it was last May, it still hasn’t achieved the mainstream attention from policymakers that fossil fuels—and alternatives to fossil fuels—have. Whether this discrepancy exists due to a lack of profit in protecting forests, developing countries’ dependence on the logging industry, or other reasons, we can only surmise.