WWF says logging will wipe out Indonesian forest
Date: 06-Feb-02
Country: SWITZERLAND
The 1,800 sq km forest on the island of Sumatra contains the highest level of lowland forest plants known to science, with up to 218 vascular species in just one 200 sq metre plot, a recent survey by the conservation organisation showed.
But it said heavy logging for timber and pulp was having "devastating effects on both plant and animal life." The forest is also home to elephants, tigers, gibbons and tapirs.
"This forest could be lost in less than four years if the current rate of logging continues," the WWF said.
"We urge the government of Indonesia to act now and set aside the Tesso Nilo forest as a protected area for the good of future generations," Agus Purnomo, Executive Director of WWF-Indonesia, said.
The Indonesian Ministry of Forestry had pledged to crack down on illegal logging, but the practice which according to the WWF involves communities, bureaucrats, military personnel and global market interests, still goes on.
"The logging that threatens Tesso Nilo is part of a pattern across Indonesia, where large financially-troubled corporations, often with foreign ownership, liquidate standing forests for a tiny fraction of their true economic potential and without regard to their biological value," it added.
The WWF, headquartered in Gland, Switzerland, also urged consumer countries, particularly the G8 group of industrialised nations, to stop the international trade in illegal timber.