In the recent years, the Indonesian government has taken steps to tackle deforestation, especially in deforestation-prone areas such as Riau and Kalimantan.
Current governmental measures include regulations to bann and eradicate illegal logging activities by placing compulsory audit on several companies in Riau, acting as a form of deterrence for firms to engage in illegal logging activities. Moreover, the government has also regulated the provision of degraded-forest areas for economic activity in order to preserve the forests that are not yet affected.
In addition, the Indonesian government introduced the National Timber Legality Verification System to assure other countries that Indonesia’s own laws are being followed, and that timber and other forestry products leaving the country are certified as legal and traceable to their points of origin, to address the problem of illegal logging.
On top of that, the government has also halted the logging of forests that has never been logged, in order to preserve them. One example would be the Thirty Hills National Park that was created in the 1990s to preserve some of the rainforest. It is about 144,000 hectares, but it only represents a small portion of Sumatra’s rainforest. Much of the forested areas of Sumatra that are not privately owned or protected like Thirty Hills National Park, but rather a patchwork of land divided up into concessions. These patches of forest are owned by the government and leased to different companies for different uses. However despite being allocated lands for economic purposes, many corporations still engage in illegal logging activities in other areas such as Riau and Kalimantan in order to obtain more resources to produce more supplies, in order to meet the growing demand. Hence, the government’s current preservation efforts are not effective in curbing illegal logging activities.
During December’s UN climate change conference in Bali, the Indonesian minister for forestry promised to provide incentives to stop unsustainable forestry practices, and to protect Indonesia’s forests. The governor of Riau province has also made a public commitment to protect the province’s remaining forest.