Hoi th_o là mot phân c_a d_ án “B_o Tôn và Phát Trien t_i l?u v_c sông Mekong” c_a CIFOR và d_ án “ðên ñáp, s_d_ng và chia s ñâu t? trong Chi tr_ các d_ch v_ môi tr?_ng vì ng?_i nghèo – RUPES II” c_a

ICRAF.

Krystof Obidzinski of the Center for International Forestry Research said a lot of Indonesians got into the black market timber business during the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis. “Significant numbers of people are being put out of work already, so we will have to wait and see what impact that will have for illegal logging,” he said.

Krystof Obidzinski, policy scientist with the Centre for International Forestry Research, says a lot of Indonesians got into the business when the Asian financial crisis hit in the 1990s. “Significant numbers of people are being put out of work already, so we will have to wait and see what impact that will have for illegal logging,” he said. When President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono took office, the Indonesian government stepped up the fight against illegal logging. But Obidzinski says there have been very few convictions and very little money or timber recovered. “If we look at those indicators, it’s a bit iffy, a bit so so, not very impressive.” And Sumatran tigers have to contend with more than destruction of their habitat.

The story also released in Live News

Indonesia could reap huge financial benefits from carbon sales after international scientists discovered that trees in tropical forests can absorb greater levels of carbon than those in the other parts of the world. A member of the research team, Terry Sunderland from the Bogor-based Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), said that carbon up-take studies were particularly important for Indonesia ahead of the implementation of the emission reduction from deforestation and degradation (REDD) scheme, adopted at the Bali climate change meeting in December 2007.

In 2007, Uju Saharman first found the orchids that grow near the Selimbau royal cemetery complex. He knew about orchids after getting information about the plant from the NGO Riak Bumi and also from an orchid researcher at the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR).

A seminar Friday concluded that forest decentralization, which granted authority to local administrations to manage their own resources, had continued to destroy forests and heighten conflict among local communities, instead of improving the forests’ condition. CIFOR expert Godwin Limber, who was also editor of the book, said that decentralization had not succeeded in promoting sustainable forest management and improve people’s welfare. “There is little improvement in terms of income of the people living around the forest. Certain groups get more than others and this causes conflicts,” he said. The book was based on the group’s 10-year field study of forest decentralization in Malinau regency, East Kalimantan.