Indonesia land swap, meant to protect peatlands, risks wider deforestation, NGOs say

JAKARTA — A program under which pulpwood and logging companies in Indonesia must preserve and restore any peat habitats that fall within their concessions could lead to greater deforestation, NGOs warn. Up to half the land that could potentially be awarded to these companies under a land swap scheme is classified as natural forest, the groups say. This amounts to 9,719 square kilometers (3,753 square miles) of forest, an area roughly the size of Lebanon. “We fear that vast areas of natural forest, especially in Kalimantan [Indonesian Borneo], Sumatra and Papua will be designated for land swaps and converted into pulpwood plantations in the name of peatland restoration,” the coalition of NGOs said in a statement. The biggest concern among activists is Indonesia’s easternmost region of Papua, home to 35 percent of Indonesia’s remaining rainforest and the last untouched swaths of pristine forest left in the country. The land in sparsely populated Papua is already being targeted by the government and businesses as a new frontier ripe for logging concessions and oil palm plantations, which have already nearly depleted the forests of Sumatra and Kalimantan. The land swap program threatens to accelerate the pace of deforestation in Papua, the NGOs say. They calculate that Papua faces the biggest risk of deforestation under the program of any region in Indonesia: Up to 4,730 square kilometers (1,825 square miles) of natural forest, an area the size of Grand Canyon National Park, could potentially be handed over to pulpwood and timber producers under…

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