Two Billion Trees for Aceh: The Wealth We Never Counted

During the heyday of the Forest Concession Rights (HPH) era from the 1980s to the early 2000s, Aceh’s forests were regarded as one of Indonesia’s largest natural timber reserves. Through systematically conducted forest inventories, HPH concession holders were able to map the potential of commercial timber stands deep into the interior, count the number of trees suitable for felling, estimate the volume of timber that could be harvested, and design skidding and haulage routes with a high degree of precision (Ministry of Forestry of the Republic of Indonesia, 1995; FAO, 2001).

At that time, millions of high-value trees such as meranti (Shorea spp.), keruing (Dipterocarpus spp.), damar (Agathis spp.), and various other tropical hardwoods were felled from the wilds of Aceh to meet the needs of the national timber industry as well as export markets (KLHK, 2021).

This exploitation generated economic profits reaching billions and even trillions of rupiah. For more than two decades, natural timber was one of the mainstays of both the regional and national economy. Yet behind that economic success, forests were more often viewed as a source of industrial raw materials rather than as an ecological system sustaining life.

Judging by the extent of the HPH concessions that once operated in Aceh, the number of trees felled could well have reached hundreds of millions or even billions of stems, although an exact figure would require reconstruction based on timber production archives, stand inventories, and data on the size of felling areas during that period (Ministry of Forestry of the Republic of Indonesia, 1995). Ironically, the ability to count timber potential was carried out with great precision in the service of production and economic gain.

Yet today, amid growing awareness of the importance of conservation, climate change, and ecosystem services, we still lack a comprehensive estimate of how many billions of trees remain standing in Aceh’s forests. We are better acquainted with the economic value of timber that has left the forest than with the ecological value of the billions of trees that remain as carbon stores, water regulators, guardians of biodiversity, and pillars of Acehnese communities’ livelihoods (IPCC, 2023; FAO, 2020).

For decades, the success of forest management in Aceh has almost always been measured using a single indicator: forest area. Whenever the condition of the forests is discussed, the figures that emerge are how many million hectares remain, how many hectares have been lost to deforestation, or how many hectares have been successfully rehabilitated (KLHK, 2024).

This approach is indeed important, but in truth it has not been able to portray the full wealth of Aceh’s forests. A forest is not merely a stretch of green land measured in hectares. A forest is a collection of billions of trees working ceaselessly to produce oxygen, store carbon, regulate water systems, maintain soil fertility, reduce the risk of floods and landslides, and provide a home for thousands of flora and fauna species that form one of the richest tropical rainforest ecosystems in the world (FAO, 2020; IPCC, 2023).