[Environment Report]:Illegal Destruction of Indonesian Forests


This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT.

Two environmental groups blame dishonesty among Indonesianofficials for the continued destruction of the country's forests.Their report says illegal tree cutting is threatening the nativeenvironment of rare animals, including the orangutan. It says theillegal operations are harming large areas of rainforest, includingthose protected by the Indonesian government.

The Environmental Investigation Agency and Telapak released thereport. Telapak is an environmental group based in Indonesia. TheEnvironmental Investigation Agency operates in several countries.

The two groups say Indonesia controls ten percent of the world'stropical rainforests. They say illegal operations to remove treesare causing large areas of forest to disappear.

Environmental Investigation Agency director Dave Currey says theillegal operations are completely out of control. He says theIndonesian government offered to stop tree cutting in the country'snational parks three years ago. Since then, he says, the problem hasworsened.

The two groups say illegal activities are to blame for the lossof more than sixteen-thousand square kilometers of forest each year.They say studies have shown that more than seventy percent of allwood processed in Indonesia comes from illegal logging operations.

The groups note that Indonesia has laws that ban such activities.But they say that dishonest judges and political leaders enabletree-cutters to buy protection from legal action.

The groups examined the situation in the Tanjung Puting(TAHNG-joong POOT-ing) National Park on the island of Borneo. Thearea is home to world famous centers to protect orangutans. Thegroups found thousands of cubic meters of trees being cut at illegalprocessing centers in the park. They say some of the wood came fromrare kinds of trees.

The new report praises Indonesia's government for establishingtreaties to limit the international trade in illegal wood products.However, it says the government has not done enough to deal withproblems within Indonesia. The report says the government riskshaving one of its most valuable natural resources removed in orderto supply rare woods to other countries.

This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by GeorgeGrow.

品牌培训机构展示

该专题下最近更新的节目

专题广播资料索引