Indonesia Gives Green Light To Clear 3 Million Hectares Of Primary Forest In Papua

Indonesia's Ministry of Forestry has approved conversion of some 3 million hectares of natural forest in Papua province, on the island of New Guinea, according to new analysis by Greenomics Indonesia, an environmental group.

Data from Greenomics Indonesia indicates 17 companies have been granted concessions to clear natural forest in Papua. Roughly 1 million hectares is earmarked for industrial plantations that will supply the pulp and paper industry.

Greenomics Indonesia alleges that six of the companies, which together hold 1.2 million hectares, have been exempted from the moratorium on concessions in natural forest and peatland areas.

Greenomics Indonesia's Executive Director Elfian Effendi says the plan could transform the heavily forested province. "It will be no different from what has happened in Riau Province," Elfian said, referring to the province in Sumatra that has been largely deforested for palm oil and pulp and paper production.

EDIT

http://news.mongabay.com/2011/0201-papua_deforestation.html

Is that what we call changing resources of the many into cash for the few?

How sad that the people who gain the wealth from this will be far from the choking smoke of the ensuing peat fires, and their homes will all be above the storm-surge-at-high-tide mark.

The "Ministry of Forestry" should be called the "Ministry of Forest Destruction."

Stupid and greedy - they're the New Black.

Instead of Homo sapiens, we should be called Homo profligans ssp. destructivans -- or something else more descriptive.

I haven't noticed any of us doing anything particularly sapient in public for quite some time now . . .

:puke:

Have never seen either of those shows, nor "Sex and the City" nor "Desperate Housewives."

I did watch "Masterpiece Theater," in the old days, but the "vast wasteland" of then seems to be far more vast now.

With such amazing technology available, we seem to have utilized it mainly to dumb ourselves down even further (says one who spends FAR too much time reading/posting on-line). :blush:

I think the Greeks were right about a "city" being too big when the residents could no longer recognize each other by sight. Anonymity brings lack of feeling responsible -- but we are all responsible, and we are all becoming more and more anonymous.

We are paying a terrible price for loss of family groups and tribal connections and our sense of being part of the planet.

/rant

nt