Indonesia to raze 700,000 hectares of forest for food estate

By Sunanda Creagh, Editing by David Fogarty
JAKARTA
Thu Mar 25, 2010 8:52am EDT (Reuters) – Indonesia would have to clear about 700,000 hectares of forest, an area 10 times the size of Singapore, if it proceeds with plans for a vast agricultural estate in Papua province, an activist group said on Thursday. Indonesia wants to develop the 1.2 million hectare (3 million acres) food estate in the Papua district of Merauke, the eastern-most part of Indonesia, to shore up supplies of rice, sugar, corn, soybean and beef and ensure more stable food prices. The country has a rapidly growing population estimated at 240 million and wants to avoid rising food import bills. The government is trying to use more land for agricultural purposes to be self-sufficient. The government previously said that unforested scrubland in areas classified as production forest would be used to develop the estate. But a Jakarta-based environmental NGO, Greenomics, said huge swathes of healthy Papua forest would need to be cleared to develop a food estate of that size. Using satellite images and data from the ministry of environment and the ministry of forestry, Greenomics has calculated that Merauke has only 505,945 hectares of unforested scrubland in areas classified as production forest. “That amount is far from the development target,” said Greenomics executive director Elfian Effendi. “If they have to cut down this much forest, this is not consistent with the Indonesian government’s plan to not convert natural forests in Merauke.” …

Greens fear Indonesia forest loss for food estate