JAKARTA – Tingginya beban utang serta defisit pasokan serat kayu pada sejumlah industri bubur kertas (pulp) dan kertas di Indonesia, akan mendorong ekspansi penebangan hutan-hutan alam. Di sisi lain, sekitar 70 persen beban utang perusahaan-perusahaan industri tersebut, yang menjadi debitor Badan Penyehatan Perbankan Nasional (BPPN), dikhawatirkan akan dibebankan sebagai utang publik.

JAKARTA, Feb 11 (AFP) – Large areas of natural forest in Indonesia will be destroyed by 2007 due to logging by the country’s two largest pulp producers, two environmental groups warned in a report released Monday. The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) said a study showed two indebted Indonesian pulp producers – Sinar Mas Group and Raja Garuda Mas Group – planned to clear almost 500,000 hectares (1.23 million acres) of forest from Riau province by "Indonesia’s largest pulp producers… rely heavily on unsustainable sources of fiber, much of which is obtained through the clear-cutting of natural forests," said CIFOR policy scientist Christopher Barr in the report.

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta – The remaining natural forest in Riau Province is on the brink of destruction as the country’s giant pulp producers, Sinar Mas Group and Raja Garuda Mas Group, plan to clear almost 500,000 hectares of natural forest in Sumatra by 2007, according to a joint study compiled by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR).