^ I remember there was a "reboisasi" (re-growing jungles) campaign during Suharto's time. We should start a similar campaign today!

Although our growing population meant more jungles (particularly in fast-growing Sumatera) need to be cleared for human habitation.

We need to export some fo our people, the ones that are uneducated and corrupt....

Police: Suspected Islamic terrorists admit to beheading Christian schoolgirls in 2005

JAKARTA (AP): Seven suspected Islamic terrorists have confessed to beheading three Christian schoolgirls on Indonesia's Sulawesi Island, police said Wednesday.

The seven detained suspects confessed under questioning that they planned and carried out the Oct. 29 beheadings in the Central Sulawesi town of Poso, police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Rudi Sufahriadi told The Associated Press.

Another girl was wounded but spared by the assailants, he said.

Two of the suspects also say they have ties to Noordin Top, regarded as a key leader of the al-Qaeda-linked group Jamaah Islamiyah (JI), according to Central Sulawesi police chief Brig. Gen. Oegroseno.

Poso, a coastal town, is some 1,600 kilometers northeast of Jakarta. It was the scene of clashes between Muslims and Christians in 1999-2002 that claimed more than 1,000 lives.

Sporadic bombings and attacks, mostly targeting the Christian community, have continued and police suspect JI involvement. (***)

By JANE PERLEZ
New York Times
LONG ALONGO, Indonesia For as long as anyone can remember, Anyie Apoui and his people have lived among the majestic trees and churning rivers in an untouched corner of Borneo, catching fish and wild game, cultivating rice and making do without roads. But all that is about to change.
The Indonesian government has signed a deal with China that will level much of the remaining tropical forests in an area so vital it is sometimes called the lungs of Southeast Asia.
For China, the deal is a double bounty: the wood from the forest will provide flooring and furniture for its ever-expanding middle class, and in its place will grow vast plantations for palm oil, an increasingly popular ingredient in detergents, soaps and lipstick.
The forest-to-palm-oil deal, one of an array of projects that China said it would develop in Indonesia as part of a $7 billion investment spree last year, illustrates the increasingly symbiotic relationship between China's need for a wide variety of raw materials, and its Asian neighbors' readiness to provide them, often at enormous environmental cost.
For Mr. Anyie and his clan, the deal will bring jobs and the opportunity for a modern life. "We love our forest, but I want to build the road for my people I owe it to them," said Mr. Anyie, 63, an astute elder of the Dayak people. "We've had enough of this kind of living."
From Indonesia to Malaysia to Myanmar, many of the once plentiful forests of Southeast Asia are already gone, stripped legally or illegally, including in the low-lying lands here in Kalimantan, on the Indonesian side of Borneo. Only about half of Borneo's original forests remain.
Those forests that do remain, like the magnificent stands here in Mr. Anyie's part of the highlands, are ever pressed, ever prized and ever more valuable, particularly as China's economy continues its surge.
Over all, Indonesia says it expects China to invest $30 billion in the next decade, a big infusion of capital that contrasts with the declining investment by American companies here and in the region.
Much of that Chinese investment is aimed at the extractive industries and infrastructure like refineries, railroads and toll roads to help speed the flow of Indonesia's plentiful coal, oil, gas, timber and palm oil to China's ports.
In one of the latest deals, on April 19, Indonesia announced that China had placed a $1 billion rush order for a million cubic yards of a prized reddish-brown hardwood, called merbau, to be used in construction of its sports facilities for the 2008 Olympic Games.
Merbau wood, mostly prevalent in Papua's virgin forests, has been illegally logged and shipped to China since the late 1990's, stripping large swathes of forest in the Indonesian province on the western side of the island of New Guinea.
The decision to award a $1 billion concession to China will "increase the deforestation of Papua," a place of extraordinary biodiversity, said Elfian Effendy, executive director of Greenomics, an Indonesian environmental watchdog. "It's not sustainable."
The plan for palm oil plantations on Borneo was signed during a visit by the Indonesian president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, to Beijing last July.
Under pressure from environmental groups, the Indonesian environment and forestry ministries have come out against the plan. The coordinating minister for economic affairs, who goes by the single name Boediono, said in April that he was still weighing the pros and cons of executing the entire plan.
The commander of the Indonesian military, Gen. Djoko Suyanto, whose forces are heavily involved in Indonesia's illegal forestry businesses, strongly backed the plan during a visit to the border region in March.
Certainly, there are profits to be made. Major consumer companies like Procter & Gamble say they are using more palm oil in their products instead of crude oil; palm oil is favored for cooking by the swelling Chinese middle class, and it is being explored as an alternative fuel.
Indonesia's environmentalists, and some economists, say chopping down as much as 4.4 million acres of the last straight-stemmed, slow-growing towering dipterocarp trees on Borneo would gravely threaten this region's rare ecosystem for plants, animals and people....

Greedy and corrupt Indonesian bureaucrat who never thinking long term what make Indonesia always lagging behind and become chaotic country. Indonesia easily will make blunder move and being ridiculed by other countries in term of business deal. One of example of this deal to deforestation the remnant of Kalimantan and Papuan forest for China need. How the future of Indonesian children will live without knowing forest anymore because the greedy beaurocrats.

In one of the latest deals, on April 19, Indonesia announced that China had placed a $1 billion rush order for a million cubic yards of a prized reddish-brown hardwood, called merbau, to be used in construction of its sports facilities for the 2008 Olympic Games.
Merbau wood, mostly prevalent in Papua's virgin forests, has been illegally logged and shipped to China since the late 1990's, stripping large swathes of forest in the Indonesian province on the western side of the island of New Guinea.

The commander of the Indonesian military, Gen. Djoko Suyanto, whose forces are heavily involved in Indonesia's illegal forestry businesses, strongly backed the plan during a visit to the border region in March.


http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/art...NYT03/604290444

Forests in Southeast Asia Fall to Prosperity's Ax

Any Malaysian thieves entering Indonesia to plunder Indonesian wood, regardless of race, must be shot. All their local supporters, especially the corrupt local politicians who are willing to destroy their own forest for money, should be hanged in public and their corpse left to rot as warning to others.

All smuggling routes in the jungle from Indonesia to Malaysia should be bombed. Then, the border with Malaysia must be fortified to prevent future encroachment by Malaysian thieves. Indonesian navy must patrol the sea border with Malaysia to prevent wood being smuggled into that country.

And most important lesson for Indonesia: never trust Malaysia. Indos must always beware of that country. If Indos look the other way, Malaysia will backstab us for sure as proven with illegal logging case.

We Indonesian Malays/Malaysian Malays have Islam as guidance. We don't just simply act by following our heart.

What makes you any different from animals if you really mean on what you've written above?
What about Indonesians who commit crimes in Malaysia?
I never thought of treating those Indonesian criminals like you've suggested above.

We Indonesian Malays/Malaysian Malays have Islam as guidance. We don't just simply act by following our heart.

You are Chinese and Chinese are different.That's why you can just eat anything you want except stones and woods. By the way, I doubt that you are Chinese.

some Indonesian Malays eat 'anything' too you know. Not all of us are Muslims, some are Catholics, Protestants, Hindus and Animists too.

Alot has been metioned about how foreigners are mainly to blame for the deforestation going on in Indonesia. I don't know the extent of foreigners involvement and how much blame they shoulder but I feel its fairly obvious that there must be some Indonesians profiting from this venture as well.
We're not talking about stealing something that you can hide in your pockets. Firstly you need someone to cut the trees, roads need to be built to remove the logs, then you require a truck and a driver to remove the logs and finally the logs then need to go through a port before being loaded on a ship. Although it may be foreign companies doing the trade in Indonesian wood it has to be like you've mentioned previously, government officials being paid to turn a blind eye. From the government officials who manage the forests/districts to the port/custom employees who allow the illegal logs to be loaded onto ships. If the scale of the problem is as big as you've suggested, there has to be many other people in between, we're talking about hundreds of thousands of logs in what has to be a very organised operation.
The reality is that fairly or unfairly, there is little Indonesia can do about the foreign companies illegal activities, they can close local branches down, arrest whatever employees they have in Indonesia but these companies will just appoint new employees and set up another clandestine operation. I don't believe targeting these people will save Indonesia's remaining rainforest.
My personal feeling is that Indonesia's best hope is targeting the people who are prepared to turn a blind eye. As long as there are people prepared to allow illegal logging for their own personal gain, there will always be companies either foreign or local who will be prepared to take advantage of this. Stamp out corruption and you'll most likely stamp out illegeal logging.

It is backed by The commander of the Indonesian military, whose forces are heavily involved in Indonesia's illegal forestry businesses, strongly backed the plan during a visit to the border region in March.

This is just a pure lie. Actually the military commander was agreeing with president's plan to convert large areas of border area with Malaysia into palm-oil plantations which will be used to produce biodiesel fuel. We are copying Brazil's transformation of the Amazon jungles into productive agricultural plantations supplying that nation's massive biodiesel industry. The wood cut will be used to return Indonesia into the status of largest plywood exporter in the world as during Suharto era. This position is currently being held by Malaysia, whose wood "exports" mainly originated from illegally-cut Indonesian wood.

The corrupt Indonesians are the corrupt local politicians who abuse their autonomous authority to wipe-out their own jungle in cahoots with foreign Malaysians. It is these people that need to be hanged in public as warning to others.

You must be really stupid, cutting the tropical rain forest and convert it to palm oil plantation. Don't you just want to finish off the remnant of forest in Borneo, where the wild life such as orang utan would live? And how we rae going to preserve this precious remaining forest?

We already have more than enough palm oil, perhaps right now our palm oil plantation the biggest in world.

LOL, have you ever heard of protected "national parks"? It is cutting wood inside the huge national parks in Kalimantan and Sumatera that constitutes "illegal logging" and must be stopped. Nowhere president SBY suggests the development of agriculture to be done in national parks. There is nothing illegal to exploit resources outside of national parks as without doing it, the region would be dead economically and the locla people left impoverished.

There are not much forest left in Sumatra and Kalimantan either in protected or non protected forest

because in Indonesia everything possible if you have money. The chinese tawke will just hire military to protect their business and no one will bother. The economy benefit would go to local people will be just miniscule comparing to nature disaster in the future would happened to them. The real benefit of deforestation only handfull of minority people and military who back them up.

That is debatable since forest always regrow.
That's why I said national parks must be protected and if necessary expanded. Those caught doing or supporting illegal logging in national parks must be killed as example. That is the only effective punishment. Indonesia's law enforcement problems largely came through lack of tough punishment like death penalty.

Meanwhile, of course the livelihood of local people must be taken care of, either by legal wood industry or agricultural development. The idea is to find balance between protecting nature and economic development.

Indeed, we have to find balance between protecting nature and economic development.
But you can destroy a complete forest in days but regrowing will take decades.....and if unique species of trees,plant and animals are gone it will be for ever, they never coming back.....

That is debatable since forest always regrow.
That's why I said national parks must be protected and if necessary expanded. Those caught doing or supporting illegal logging in national parks must be killed as example. That is the only effective punishment. Indonesia's law enforcement problems largely came through lack of tough punishment like death penalty.

Meanwhile, of course the livelihood of local people must be taken care of, either by legal wood industry or agricultural development. The idea is to find balance between protecting nature and economic development.

In total, Indonesia has already lost more than 72% of its large intact ancient forest areas and 40% of its forests have been completely destroyed.
Eventhough forest regrow It took another more than 50 years if It is regrow, And this regrown forest will not be the same habitat like ancient forest.

The deforestation will always impact the balance of nature and will lead landslid and erosion which the tree could not grown anymore in this kind of type of situation, the best nature could grow only the tall grass.

De-forestation it is not taking care of livelihood of local people, the population of local people in Kalimantan only miniscule, This activity only will bring misery to them.

The people who gain advantage of this unresponsible act to nature only tiny handfull people gaining advantage of this deforestation and their military supporters.

You may continue with your emotional anti-Chinese bashing, but when push comes to shove, it is the local people themselves who happily cut down their own forests illegally as they have no other source of income.

It is not chinese bashing, it is a fact. All this company did deforestaion in Indonesia are chinese own protected by enforcements. Ali- Baba reltions like Soeharto regime continue the repeating of cycles.
And you keep with your campaign here all this deforestation act, the forest will regrown again.

Jungles where unique plants and animals live must be declared as protected national parks (eg single-horned rhinoceros in Ujung Kulon National Park, komodo dragons in Komodo National Parks, Sumatran elephant in Way Kambas National Park). And these parks must be protected by well-disciplined, well-paid, and well-armed park rangers.

LOL, most of these companies are Malaysian, hence all the illegal logs caught are always heading to Malaysia. These Malaysians are protected by corrupt local bureaucrats and local people whom they bribed and employed in their illegal logging ventures. Military has little political power these days, some local officers may be involved, but the fact is it is the military (particularly the Navy) who done the most to stop illegal logging to a minimum today.

Don't twist my words. I explicitly urged corrupt local bureaucrats who backed ILLEGAL LOGGING IN NATIONAL PARKS to be executed. However, your idea that all LEGAL LOGGING should be banned is unrealistic, as the local people depended on logging as their source of income. Often, legal logging is the only economic activity in some parts of Kalimantan, just like it is in Sabah and Sarawak. If all logging are banned, the local people have no choice but to continue logging illegally.

Setiap kali kalau sy baca sesuatu seperti ini, sy menjadi sedih dan berfustrasi. You cant do anyting, youre totaly powerless and your country is being destroyed by foreign people (always the Chinese) and indigenous selvish idiots...The only thing that you can do is prey(berdoa)....

Do you have any answer why we need to destroy more our forest and this time the remnant and the last frontier of ancient forest in Papua by legalising 800.000 cubic meter wood for Olympic purposes in China?
I feel sorry to my country destroyed by these kind of people, protected by bribed enforcement. They are not native Indonesian so they don't care much what happened to this country as long as they can leeched this country.

^ So Indonesia shouldn't do anything about Malaysians stealing Indonesian wood?

Best thing to do is to kill any Malaysian thieves caught in Indonesia, cut their body to pieces, and mail them back to Malaysia. The problem with Indonesia is that we are always too nice and too naive when dealing with foreigners.

As for local politicians who profited from illegal logging, they must be hanged in front of the public as warning.

Any Malaysian thieves entering Indonesia to plunder Indonesian wood, regardless of race, must be shot. All their local supporters, especially the corrupt local politicians who are willing to destroy their own forest for money, should be hanged in public and their corpse left to rot as warning to others.

All smuggling routes in the jungle from Indonesia to Malaysia should be bombed. Then, the border with Malaysia must be fortified to prevent future encroachment by Malaysian thieves. Indonesian navy must patrol the sea border with Malaysia to prevent wood being smuggled into that country.

And most important lesson for Indonesia: never trust Malaysia. Indos must always beware of that country. If Indos look the other way, Malaysia will backstab us for sure as proven with illegal logging case.

They are not native Indonesian so they don't care much what happened to this country as long as they can leeched this country.

Whoa, native Indonesian will never leech Indonesia?!
Pak Harto must be a non-native!

They are not native Indonesian so they don't care much what happened to this country as long as they can leeched this country.

Stop involving M'sia just becoz u wanna take a hit at Nusantara..he is afterall an Indonesian...not Malaysian.

Whether the illegal loggers are Malay, Chinese or even Martians, they are irresponsible and arseholes.

It is also sad that timber kings in Malaysia too bribe the authorities to cut down trees in gazetted rainforest. Recently, a timber company in M'sia allegedly bribed a local council in Malacca to de-gazette a protected rainforest so that a timber company could log the area. Even an MP in Jasin recently, under the pay(or influence) of a timber company asked the Immigration Dept. to close one eye to allow illegal logs to enter M'sia..the Immigration officers spilled the beans and the MP is now in big trouble.

What I hate about the timber kings here..like one of the richest man in Malaysia...a timber king in Sabah/Sarwak..lives in Hong Kong .....these kind people do not appreciate our country and leech our resources. When our forest are completely finished, this arsehole gonna ditch our country....I am sure of it.

Stop involving M'sia just becoz u wanna take a hit at Nusantara..he is afterall an Indonesian...not Malaysian.