Indonesia's 11/11 "Revisions" To Logging Moratorium Cut Protection For 400KHa Forest, Peatlands
More than 400,000 hectares (1 million acres) of land — including 350,000 hectares of peatland — in Indonesian New Guinea lost their protected status during a November 2011 revision of Indonesia's moratorium on new forest concessions, reports a new analysis by Greenomics-Indonesia, a Jakarta-based NGO.
The report, Peatland and forest at serious risk from Merauke food and energy estate development, focuses on The Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate (MIFEE), a giant agricultural project in southwestern New Guinea. Backers say the 1.2 million hectare project will improve food and energy security in the region, but critics contend the scheme will primarily enrich agribusiness developers. MIFEE will result in the conversion of large areas of peatlands and forests for industrial farming and plantations.
Greenomics says its analysis of the most recent indicative map, which lays out which areas are off-limits to development during a national two-year moratorium on new forestry concessions, shows that 406,718 hectares have been excised for MIFEE. The area includes 349,678 hectares of peatland and 88,818 hectares of primary forest.
The forest moratorium includes exemptions for some food and energy crops, including sugar cane and rice, as well as mining and fossil fuels development. But Greenomics says some of the MIFEE area is allocated for corn, sago, livestock, and oil palm plantations, which aren't specifically exempted. It fears that the program will be used to expand oil palm development in areas that should be off-limits under the moratorium.
EDIT
http://news.mongabay.com/2012/0216-greenomics_papua_mifee.html
