OSLO — Deforestation in a single Indonesian province is
releasing more greenhouse gases than the Netherlands, and the loss of habitats
is threatening rare tigers and elephants, the WWF conservation group said on
Wednesday.
It said that Riau province, covering one fifth of Indonesia’s
Sumatra island, had lost 65 percent of its forests in the past 25 years as
companies used the land for pulpwood and palm oil plantations. Big peat swamps
had also been cleared.
The changes meant Riau was "generating more annual greenhouse
gas emissions than the Netherlands," according to the report by WWF and partners
RSS GmbH – a German forest monitoring group – and Japan’s Hokkaido University.
At the same time, the number of Sumatran elephants and tigers
in the province plunged as the forests vanished, it said.
Trees store carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, as they
grow and emit it when they burn or rot. Peat swamps are also big natural stores
of carbon. Worldwide, deforestation accounts for about 20 percent of greenhouse
gas emissions.
The report said Riau accounted for average annual carbon
emissions equivalent to 58 percent of Australia’s yearly emissions, 39 percent
of British emissions or 122 percent of the Netherlands’ emissions.
The main companies operating in Riau were Singapore-based Asia Pulp & Paper
and Asia Pacific Resources International Holdings Ltd (APRIL), it said.
