USA supports rainforest conservation in Sumatra

As part of a debt-for-nature swap organised with the Indonesian government with the USA, this is just the first of five planned tranches of grants - totalling US$30 million in all - to be dispensed by USAid in Sumatra over the coming three years. This total represents around 15% of what the US State Department has dedicated to environmental conservation projects across the globe between now and 2015.

More than most tropical forest countries, Indonesia's forests have been severely and permanently damaged by industrial scale plantations, mainly for palm oil but also for paper and pulp.

Just last month, scientific research led by South Dakota State University suggests that Sumatra lost almost 10% of its forest cover over the last 10 years, with over 20% of this clearing activity happening in areas that were designated for conservation, precisely where forestry operations were supposed to be either completely prohibited or regulated and restricted.

The study's conclusions were that the Indonesian government had been unable to enforce its own forestry laws and that forest losses were almost twice as heavy than originally calculated by a recent UN Food and Agriculture Organization report.

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