The Causes of Forest Deforestation

Deforestation in Indonesia is mostly a result of a political and economic system that corrupt, that the natural resources, particularly forests, as a source of income that can be exploited for political and personal gain. The growth of processing industries and wood plantations in Indonesia is proven profitable for many years, and the benefits used by the Soeharto regime as a means to control and give the friends, family and potential partners. For more than 30 years, the country is dramatically increasing production of forest products and the results of the land planted in the previous form of the forest. Today Indonesia is the major producer of wood rounded, timber saw, plywood, pulp and paper, in addition to some of the results, such as palm oil, rubber and cocoa economic growth is achieved without considering the sustainable management of forests or the rights of local residents.
For now, the causes of deforestation the forest complex. Lack of law enforcement that occurred at this time serious condition of damage to forests and directly impact on the habitat for orangutans reduced significantly. The cause of the damage can be expressed as follows.

1. Rights of forest control
More than half of the Indonesian forest area allocated to timber production system based on fells select. Many companies that violate (HPH) patterns traditional rights of ownership or land use rights. Lack of supervision and accountability of the company means that the supervision of forest management and is very weak, long run, many forest products that have been exploited excessive. According to the classification of government, at the moment almost 30 percent of (HPH )concessions that have been surveyed, included in category "most degradation already." (HPH) concession areas that experienced a decrease in the quality degradation to be easier under the threshold limit of productivity, which enables the planter to apply for permission for forest conversion. If this application is approved, then the forest will be fells out and turned into forest plantations or industrial plants.

2. Plantation industry forest
Forest plantation industry has promoted a massive subsidy and given as a way to provide a supply of wood for the pulp industry is growing rapidly in Indonesia, but how this will bring pressure on natural forests. Nearly 9 million ha of land, most of the natural forest, has been allocated for the development of forest industry plants. Land is fells This possibility has been exhausted or in the near future to be fell will given out. However, only about 2 million ha have been planted that, while the remaining 7 million hectares of land into a desolate and not productive.


3.Plantation
Development of spring crops, especially oil palm plantation, is another cause of deforestation. Nearly 7 million ha of forest have been approved to convert into plantations until the end of 1997, and this forest has been almost to be fell be exhausted. But the land is actually converted into oil palm plantations since 1985, only 2.6 million ha, while new plantations of other crops for the broadest possible reach 1-1,5 million ha. The remaining area of 3 million ha of forest land that were previously present in squalor. Many of the same company, which operates concessions (HPH), also has a plantation. And corrupt relationships developed, where the employers to apply for permission to build plantations, forest and cut out the wood produced primarily for the pulp, and then moved again, while the land that has been opened be abandoned

4.Illegal logging
Illegal logging is the practice of directly on the tree in the forest area of the country illegally. View from the types of activities, the scope of illegal logging include:

• logging plan, covering all or part of the activities of access to forests in the country, bringing the tools and infrastructure facilities to perform logging of trees with the goal of the illegal exploitation of timber.
• logging of trees in the meaning actually for the purpose of the illegal exploitation of timber.

Production of wood that came from (HPH) concessions, industrial forest plantation forest conversion and overall provide less than half the raw materials needed by the wood processing industry of wood in Indonesia. Wood is imported is relatively small, and filled lack it from illegal logging. Theft of wood in a very large scale and which is now organized riot in Indonesia; annually between 50-70 percent of the supply of timber for forest products industry be fell illegal. Area total forest lost illegal logging because it is not known, but a former Director General of Forest, Ministry of Forestry, Titus Sarijanto, recently stated that timber theft and illegal logging has destroyed about 10 million ha of Indonesian forests.

5.Convention Land
The role of traditional small-scale agriculture, compared with the other causes of deforestation, is a subject of great controversy. There are no accurate estimates are available on the wide forest that are opened by small scale farmers since 1985, but an estimate that can be trusted in 1990 states that move the tiller may be responsible for about 20 percent loss of forest. This data can be translated as land clearing about 4 million ha between 1985 until 1997.

6. Transmigration Program
Transmigration that lasted from 1960 until 1999, the population of the island of Java which has a compact to other islands. This program is estimated by the Ministry of Forestry to open forest land, almost 2 million ha during the entire period. In addition, small farmers and small scale investors opportunist who also share the causes of deforestation as land to build their plant crops, especially palm oil and cocoa, which opened in the forest with plantation operations logging and the scale it greater. Recently, transmigration "spontaneous" increase, because people move to a new place to search for economic opportunity is greater, or to avoid the disruption of social and ethnic violence. Estimation that can be trusted on forest area opened by the migrants in the national scale has not been made.


7. Forest Fire
Burning deliberately by plantation owners to open a large-scale land, and by the local people to protest or plantation operations (HPH) caused a fire that big is not restrained, and the wide intensity it unprecedented. More than 5 million ha of forest burned in 1994 and 4.6 million ha of other forests burned in the year 1997-98. Some of this land to grow back into bush, some used by small scale farmers, but little systematic effort made to restore the forest or the imprisonment of productive agriculture.

In the natural conditions, land, peat moss is not flammable because it does resemble a spoons, that absorb and hold water so that the maximum in the wet season and dry season there is no difference between the extreme conditions. However, if the land is peat moss has started be disturbed a result of conversion of land or the making of canals, the balance ecology will disrupted. In the dry season, land is very dry turf will until a certain depth and flammable. Turf containing fuel (the rest of the plant) to below the surface, so the turf fire in the area under vine in the land surface and the slow and difficult to detect, and cause thick smoke. Turf fire in the area can be difficult to be quenched, so take long time (many months). And, the new total could die after the rain intensified. let's save earth, save green earth.