In Runup To Bali Climate Conference, Indonesia's Clearcutting Goes On And On - AFP

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The December 3-14 UN summit on the resort island of Bali will see delegates from around the world -- including more than 100 ministers -- thrash out a framework for negotiations on a global regime to combat climate change when the current phase of the Kyoto Protocol ends in 2012.

Satellite images from environmental watchdog WWF show that only 25 years ago, the majority of Riau province -- home to Ali's village -- was covered in equatorial forest, one of the most ecologically diverse habitats on Earth and a vital absorber of carbon. Today, four million hectares (nearly 10 million acres), or more than 60 percent, have gone. Land clearing, both legal and illegal, has made way for tree and oil palm plantations, logging concessions and small farms.

In Kuala Cenaku, the landscape has been denuded to make way for oil palm plantations cashing in on booming demand for palm oil -- ironically seen as a source of climate-friendly biofuel.

Ali's fight is with Indonesian plantation company Duta Palma, two subsidiaries of which were granted permits by the local district head from 2004 to clear the forests around his village and its neighbour Kuala Mulia. The area was originally granted to state-owned company Inhutani IV in 2002, but public opposition forced the local government and the national forestry ministry to revoke the permit, according to the Riau head of Friends of the Earth Indonesia, Johny Setiawan.

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http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Vanishing_forests_a_counterpoint_to_Indonesias_climate_crusade_999.html