Indonesia is a global treasure chest of biodiversity and home to between 10 and 15 per cent of all known species of plants, mammals and birds. Sumatran tigers, orangutans, elephants, rhinoceroses, more than 1,500 species of birds and thousands of plant species are all a part of the country’s natural legacy.
But many of these unique forest-dwelling animals, in particular the Sumatran tiger, are endangered. Today, the fate of the Sumatran tiger hangs in the balance. With an estimated wild population of under 400, Greenpeace is urgently working to prevent it from following the nearby Javan and Bali tigers into extinction.
It is not just these wonders of our natural world that are disappearing. The lives of millions of Indonesians who depend on the forests for food, shelter and livelihoods are changing beyond recognition as the forest disappears.
© Ulet Ifansasti / Greenpeace
This destruction also threatens our global climate. Peatlands are amongst the world’s most critical carbon stores. Indonesia’s peatlands are vast, storing about 35 billion tonnes of carbon. The mass destruction of Indonesia's rainforests and carbon-rich peatlands for palm oil and paper is the main reason why Indonesia is currently the world's third largest emitter of climate changing greenhouse gases.
Indonesia’s rainforests and peatlands are being destroyed to make the disposable consumer products we find in our shops – paper for our glossy magazines and books, copy and toilet paper and packaging and palm oil for products like toothpaste and chocolate.
Greenpeace is campaigning for an immediate moratorium on forest and peatland destruction in Indonesia, and for zero deforestation by 2015. We are working alongside Indonesian civil society and local communities to bring about a better future for Indonesians, their forests, biodiversity and the global climate.
Part of the solution to the problems facing Indonesian forests and communities is getting the global marketplace to support forest protection and avoid products from destructive logging and palm oil operations.
Asia Pacific Resources International (APRIL) is destroying the Sumatran tiger’s remaining habitat to make disposal tissue and paper products. An incredible 60 per cent of fibre supply to APRIL's Riau Andalan Pulp & Paper (RAPP) pulp mill in Indonesia is rainforest wood. And in 2012, APRIL planned to feed its Sumatran pulp mill by trashing another 60,000 hectares of rainforest – an area nearly the size of Singapore.
We have already convinced palm oil producing giant, Golden Agri Resources (GAR), to take steps to reduce their impact on their forests of Indonesia. And more recently pulp and paper giant Asia Pulp and Paper published a new “Forest Conservation Policy” which, if implemented, could spell the end of its long and controversial history of rainforest destruction. Today, Indonesia stands at a crossroads; will it choose to allow companies to relentlessly clear its natural rainforests and cause the extinction of the Sumatran tiger, or, will it pursue a new green development pathway with the help of the international community that protects peatlands and rainforests?
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