JAKARTA, Indonesia – The Indonesian government is relaxing itscentralised control of the country’s forests. This action follows the trend in manymajor forest countries such as Brazil, China and the United States. The push towardsregional autonomy and decentralisation is inevitable, but brings with it as many dangersas benefits.

Bogor, Indonesia, July 30, 2001—Recent reports of forest andland fires in Indonesia have raised fears of a repeat of the…