26 Feb 2008 - Pekanbaru,
Sumatra: Turning just one Sumatran province's
forests and peat swamps into pulpwood and
palm oil plantations is generating
more annual greenhouse gas emissions than
the Netherlands and rapidly driving the
province's elephants into extinction, a
new study by WWF and partners has found.
The study found that
in central Sumatra's Riau Province 4.2 million
hectares of tropical forests and peat swamp
have been cleared in the last 25 years.
Forest loss and degradation and peat decomposition
and fires are behind average annual carbon
emissions equivalent to 122 percent of the
Netherlands total annual emissions, 58 percent
of Australia's annual emissions, 39 per
cent of annual UK emissions and 26 per cent
of annual German emissions.
Riau was chosen for
the study because it is home to vast peatlands
estimated to hold Southeast Asia’s largest
store of carbon, and contains some of the
most critical habitat for Sumatran elephants
and tigers. It also has Indonesia's highest
deforestation rate, substantially driven
by the operations of global paper giants
Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) and Asia Pacific
Resources International Holdings Limited
(APRIL).
The report by WWF, Remote
Sensing Solution GmbH and Hokkaido University
breaks new ground by analyzing for the first
time the connection between deforestation
and forest degradation, global climate change,
and population declines of tigers and elephants.
The province has lost
65 per cent of its forests over the last
25 years and in recent years has suffered
Indonesia's fastest deforestation rates.
In the same period there was an 84 per cent
decline in elephant populations, down to
only 210 individuals, while tiger populations
are estimated to have declined by 70 per
cent to perhaps just 192 individuals.
“We found that Sumatra's
elephants and tigers are disappearing even
faster than their forests are in Riau,”
said WWF International's Species Programme
Director, Dr Susan Lieberman. “This is happening
because as wildlife search for new habitat
and food sources, they increasingly come
into conflict with people and are killed.
“The fragmentation and
opening up of new forest areas also increases
both the access and the opportunities for
poaching. Therefore, a concerted effort
to save these forests will contribute significantly
to slowing the rate of.
global climate change,
and will give tigers, elephants, and local
communities a real chance for a future in
Sumatra.”
Led by global paper
giants APP and APRIL, the pulp & paper
and palm oil industries are driving Riau's
Sumatran tigers and elephants to local extinction
in just a few years by destroying their
habitat, the study found.
At last December's Bali
Climate Change Conference, the Indonesian
minister of Forestry pledged to provide
incentives to stop unsustainable forestry
practices and protect Indonesia's forests.
The governor of Riau province has also made
a public commitment to protect the province's
remaining forest.
“If the commitments
by the Indonesian government are implemented,
it will not only save its endangered species
but actually slow the rate of global climate
change through the carbon savings,” said
Ian Kosasih, director of WWF-Indonesia's
forest programme.
Carbon emissions are
likely to increase, the study predicted,
as most future forest clearance will be
conducted in areas with deep peat.
“If government and local
industry were to create positive incentives
for projects to reduce emissions by saving
forests in Riau Province, it would both
protect the province’s massive carbon stores
and also contribute to the economies of
local communities that are dependent on
these forests,” said Kosasih.
As part of its efforts
to save Sumatra’s remaining natural forests,
WWF is working urgently with the Indonesian
government and the pulp and palm oil industries
to identify and protect the forests that
are home to elephants, tigers, orang-utans
and rhinos. Sumatra is the only place on
Earth where all four species co-exist.
Consult the press release in the newsroom
