Companies working for Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) are constructing a logging highway through the Bukit Tigapuluh forest, one of the last large forest blocks on the island of Sumatra, home to two tribes of indigenous people as well as endangered elephants, tigers and orangutans, says the report.

‘With its high conservation values, the Bukit Tigapuluh Landscape should be protected and thus all natural forest clearance in the area has to be stopped,’ said Ian Kosasih, WWF-Indonesia’s forest program director.

The forest block has very high levels of biodiversity, hosting more than 250 species of bird and mammal. Environmentalists are particularly worried about clearing taking place in an area proposed for protected status and home to 90 Sumatran orangutans, which were recently reintroduced into the area for the first time in 150 years.

Dr Tom Maddox of the London Zoological Society, who helped carry out a survey of the large mammals in the area, said that a road would have ‘massive impacts on biodiversity’ and open the forest to further exploitation.

The new logging road will provide easier access to one of the company’s paper mills. Clearing began after APP’s operations were stopped in a nearby province due to a police investigation into illegal logging.


March 2008