State of the Rainforest 2014

initiated, however, signals political will to reform forest governance and to take measures against uncontrolled deforestation. As this publication goes into print, Indonesia’s Vice President has just launched a program to recognize and protect indigenous peoples as part of Indonesia’s REDD+ program. Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea has one of the world’s most signi cant tropical wilderness areas. With about 10,200 endemic plant species, the island of New Guinea clearly rates as a globally signi cant reservoir of biodiversity. 60 Papua New Guinea is also a country of enormous cultural diversity; its 7 million people speak more than 800 languages. Despite its rich natural resources and significant government revenue from large-scale extractive industries, the country is almost at the bottom of UNDP’s Human Development Index. Social indicators such as education, life expectancy and maternal and child mortality rates are among the lowest in the Asia–Pacific region. 61 According to the FAO, PNG has 287,000 km 2 of forest, and the annual deforestation has been less than 0.5% the last two decades. But also in PNG there is substantial uncertainty with regard to extent of forest and deforestation rates. The “State of the Forests report for Papua New Guinea” from 2008 estimates the forest to be 330 000 km 2 , and concludes that that between 1972 and 2002, 29,000 km 2 of forest had been lost. The current deforestation rate was estimated to be as high as about 1.41% per year. 62 Commercial logging causes 48.2% of the forest loss, and extensive clear-felling, often followed by the development of plantations, is now a major characteristic of forest management. In many areas, it is largely unregulated. Logging operations has been characterised as “wasteful, with little regard for forest ecology, ecosystem function or silvicultural practices which reduce impact and enhance regeneration.” Strip mining and other intensive mining developments also creates

export destinations being China, the EU, Japan and Korea. A recent agreement (VPA) with the EU is aimed at stopping illegal logging, but the effect remains to be seen. 57 Indigenous peoples (masyarakat adat) are recognized by the Indonesian Constitution, but this has not been reflected in other laws and regulations. Thus, the rights of indigenous peoples and other forest communities have in practice been very weak. A Constitutional Court decision from 2013 may improve this significantly, if it is followed by changes in regulations and policies. The Court ruled that forest communities’ traditional, ‘adat’, forest should not be considered ‘state forest’, as has been the case until now. This may strengthen indigenous peoples’ and forest communities’ rights to their traditional land. A major effort is now underway by indigenous peoples and Indonesia’s national Human Rights Commission to conduct hearings into abuses of traditional land- rights, as one important step on the long way to implementation of the Constitutional Court ruling. 58 Reduction of deforestation rates in Indonesia is a question of governance. 59 Historically, forest management in Indonesia has been characterized by widespread corruption, and use of forest concessions as a means of securing political support for people in power. Indonesia’s outgoing President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, committed to reduce emissions from deforestation significantly, and this was manifested through a one billion USD bilateral REDD+ agreement between Indonesia and Norway. As a part of the cooperation, important reforms are initiated in the forest sector. A significant step was the 2011 moratorium on new concessions in primary forest and peatland. The moratorium was renewed in 2013, but Indonesia’s high deforestation rate shows that the impact on the ground has been slow. The implementation of forest reforms in Indonesia is influences by the power struggle between those who support changes, and powerful commercial and political groups gaining from continued deforestation. The reforms

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STATE OF THE RAINFOREST 2014