Nigeria, Indonesia top deforestation list, China lowest

David Fogarty Reuters 24 Nov 11;

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Nigeria, Indonesia and North Korea have the world's highest rates of deforestation while China and the United States, the top two greenhouse gas polluters, have the lowest, a global ranking released on Thursday shows.

Growing demand for food and biofuels, rising populations, poverty and corruption are driving deforestation in many developing countries, said risk analysis and mapping company Maplecroft, which compiled an index for 180 countries.

The company used the latest data from the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization to calculate changes in the extent of overall forest cover, and in primary and planted forests between 2005-2010. Those at the top are ranked extreme risk.

Australia is ranked tenth and listed as high risk, while India, Vietnam and Spain are at the bottom, with low risk. Brazil is ranked number 8.

Extreme risk countries are losing plant and animal species that help provide benefits such as clean air from forests, watersheds for rivers and mangroves that protect coastlines, services that help underpin economies.

"Deforestation can also hamper efforts for a country to reduce their carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions as forests play key role in mitigating global climate change through carbon sequestration," Maplecroft analyst Arianna Granziera told Reuters in an email.

Forests soak up and lock away large amounts of CO2, helping act as a brake on climate change. Yet deforestation is disrupting this cycle and is responsible for at least 10 percent of mankind's annual greenhouse gas pollution.

The index comes days before the start of major U.N.-led climate talks in South Africa in which delegates are expected to discuss ways to try to curb emissions from deforestation.

Indonesia is losing about 1 million hectares (2.5 million acres) of forest a year. That's about 13 times the size of Singapore, with palm oil expansion accounting for about 16 percent of deforestation, Maplecroft said.

The government in May began a two-year moratorium on issuing new licences to clear primary forests and peatlands and will conduct regular satellite surveillance to monitor the ban.

Brazil's deforestation fell to 2.2 million ha annually between 2005-2010 but green groups worry changes to national forest protection laws awaiting Senate approval could ease restrictions on the amount of rainforest farmers can clear.

Green group WWF said on Wednesday approval of the revised laws could open up vast amounts of forest to agriculture and cattle ranching.

Nigeria, ranked first in the index, lost just over two million ha of forest annually between 2005-2010 driven by agricultural expansion, logging and infrastructure development.

While China was the best performer because of aggressive protection laws and replanting schemes, it was driving deforestation in other countries, Granziera said.

"China's demand for wood is fuelling increasing imports, much of which comes from the USA and Canada, but illegal imports from Brazil, Cambodia and other developing countries have been reportedly increasing," she said.

The Risk to Our Forests? ‘Extreme’
Ulma Haryanto Jakarta Globe 24 Nov 11;

Despite government efforts, Indonesia still has one of the highest rates of deforestation in the world, a new study showed on Thursday.

In the ranking of 180 countries released by British risk analysis and mapping firm Maplecroft, Indonesia was near the top along with Nigeria and North Korea.

“One of the principle risks to the world’s forests is the production of palm oil, which is increasing at 9 percent annually throughout the tropical belt, due to expanding biofuel markets in the European Union and global food demand,” Maplecroft said in a statement on its Web site.

Indonesia, ranked second in the Deforestation Index, is the world’s largest producer of palm oil. Maplecroft estimated that palm oil production accounted for almost 16 percent of total deforestation in the country.

The government in May began a two-year moratorium on issuing new licenses to clear primary forests and peatlands and will conduct regular satellite surveillance to monitor the ban.

But Maplecroft said the Indonesian ban on deforestation was simply forcing palm oil producers to seek land elsewhere, notably in the West African countries of Liberia, Gabon and Ghana, which will likely increase their risk.

Nigeria, ranked first in the index, lost just over two million hectares of forest annually between 2005 and 2010, driven by agricultural expansion, logging and infrastructure development.

Hadi Daryanto, secretary general of the Indonesian Forestry Ministry, said the numbers were “misleading.”

“Their calculation is based on average number,” he said. “They don’t see how much we have reduced deforestation.”

Maplecroft said it based its findings on the latest data from the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization to calculate changes in the extent of overall forest cover, and in primary and planted forests between 2005 and 2010.

Hadi said Indonesia had been losing 3.5 million hectares of forest per year until 2003, but this number had been reduced to 1.1 million hectares in 2009. “By 2010, the amount was down to 700,000 hectares,” he said.

Maplecroft said the countries listed highest were classified as being at extreme risk. That means they are losing plant and animal species, clean air from forests and watersheds for rivers and mangroves that protect coastlines. All of these are services that help underpin economies.

Environmental activists have blamed rampant deforestation for contributing to the threatened extinction of the Sumatran tiger.

“If the forests are not protected, what’s left of the Sumatran tiger is the stories, just like the Java and Bali tigers,” said Rusmadiya Maharuddin, from Greenpeace Southeast Asia.

There are only 400 Sumatran tigers left in the wild.

Indigenous people are also losing their homes because of deforestation.

On the other end of the scale, Maplecroft, citing heavy investments in protection and ref o restation, ranked the world’s biggest polluters, China and the United States, in the bottom five countries in the Deforestation Index.

Additional reporting from Ismira Lutfia