Where Have all the Forests Gone? Deforestation and reforestation in Indonesia

Panel Discussion in honour of the late Derek Holmes

Tuesday 10th May 2011, 6.45pm to 8.15pm Room OLD321, Old Building, LSE

Chair: Dr Ruth Kattumuri, Co-Director, Asia Research Centre

Speakers:

• Dr Charles Palmer, Department of Geography and Environment, LSE Contracting natural resource use: small scale logging agreements and forest co-management in Kalimantan and Sulawesi
• Dr Jon Heuch, Forestry Consultant, LTS International Getting REDDY - reconciling traditional and new demands on forest land on the border of Jambi and South Sumatra, Indonesia: Is REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) a form of sustainable development or another aid agency panacea?
• Dr Roger Montgomery, Asia Research Centre, LSE An overview of deforestation and afforestation in Indonesia

Discussants:

• Dr Robin Burgess, STICERD, Department of Economics, LSE
• Ms Monica Di Gregorio, Department of International Development, LSE

At Independence from the Dutch, Indonesia was believed to be still 75% forested. Between 1945 and 1985 (41 years) Indonesia lost 24 million ha of forest (20% of its closed canopy forest or 13% of Indonesia’s total area).

During the next twelve years (1985-1997), the most destructive period, another 20+ million ha of forest was cut down The country’s closed cover forest canopy area fell to less than 96 million hectares or just 50% of Indonesia’s surface area. In this most destructive period, the annual rate of loss of Indonesia’s forest was 1.67 million hectares per year according to the late Derek Holmes, the first to measure the loss and write about it, drawing the attention of the entire world.

In Indonesia, from 2000 to 2005 the annual rate of forest loss decelerated rapidly, but did not stop. Deforestation decreased at first to 0.31 million ha per year, but from 2005 to 2010 the rate went back up to 0.69 million ha per year. The total loss of forest in Indonesia during the last decade was another 5 million ha according to two independent sources.

There are four topics for discussion:

1. What can be (or was) done to decrease the rate of deforestation within the government controlled forest estate?
2. What can be (or has been) done to reforest the degraded, deforested land within the forest estate?
3. What can be done to encourage the planting trees outside the forest estate, on steeply sloping privately controlled land? What models, policy measures work?
4. What is the role of civil society (NGOs in particular) and what have been their successes and challenges?

Additional Details

This event is free and open to all with no ticket required. Entry is on a first come, first served basis. For any queries email  arc@lse.ac.uk  or call 020 7955 7615.

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Speakers