A tree sustains the lives of many

A tree sustains the lives of many

Indonesia's forests fall into various categories; from the
evergreen Dipterocarpaceae lowland forests of Sumatra and
Kalimantan and the monsoon forests and savannas of the islands of
Nusa Tenggara, to the alpine expanses of Papua. Each forest is
unique.

Indonesia is also home to the world's vastest mangrove
forests, which in the early 1990s covered 4.25 million hectares
of area.

Among the world's richest in biodiversity, the forests are a
haven for 11 percent of the world's plant species (biodiversity),
10 percent of its mammals, 17 percent of its reptiles and
amphibians and 16 percent of the world's bird species. The number
could be higher considering that there has yet to be thorough
biodiversity mapping.

As the forests are quickly disappearing, their inhabitants are
near extinction, closing the opportunity to explore the
country's, or maybe the world's, most magnificent natural wonders
still untouched deep in the forests.

But that is not all. According to a 1999 Ministry of Forestry
report, about 30 million people "have a direct dependency on the
forests", while many more use forest plants for traditional
medicines or to collect honey, rattan or resin for a living.

The forests also protect river basins that provide water to
people. Unfortunately, according to a 2001 report by Forest Watch
Indonesia (FWI) and the Global Forest Watch, an estimated 20
percent of the forest preserves around five of the largest river
basins in the country had disappeared between 1985 and 1997.

Indonesia's forests produce 14 billion tons of biomass which
roughly contains 3.5 billion tons of carbon. But forest
exploitation has discharged the carbon, and this has contributed
to global warming.

The value of the forests cannot be measured by rupiah. But
once a tree is felled, it takes down many lives with it.

-- Tertiani Z.B. Simanjuntak