Record diversity in threatened Indonesian forest

A line of 91 logging trucks wait to leave Tesso Nilo forest on a ferry to a pulp mill in Riau, Sumatra.

By Nick Easen in Hong Kong

TESSO NILO, Indonesia -- Lowland tropical forest on the island of Sumatra, one of the world's most biologically diverse, could disappear within four years if logging continues its current rate.

The Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) told CNN that a 1,800 sq km area of pristine Indonesian forest could disappear under a sea of acacia trees and oil palm if the logging is not stopped.

"Unfortunately, it is earmarked as a production forest and there are 3 to 4 companies logging for timber and pulp in the area," Nazir Foead, a WWF Indonesian coordinator told CNN.

"Last year over a six day period we observed 1,200 illegal logging trucks leave the forest with 10,000 cubic meters of logs, we want the logging to stop."

Although the Ministry of Forestry has announced a crack down on illegal logging, the practice, which according to the WWF involves communities, bureaucrats, military personnel and global market interests, still continues unabated.

The sun sets on one of the world's most diverse forests as flames rise from clear cutting -- the worst form of logging.

Tesso Nilo is one of Sumatra's single largest remaining blocks of lowland rainforest and is home to a wide range of wildlife including elephants, tigers, gibbons, and even tapirs.

On satellite images, the area can be seen as a green island surrounded by a sea of clear-cutting and plantations.

As settlements moved deeper into what was once rainforest, elephants began encroaching on human activity, and researchers and conservationists began focusing on the area.

"We needed to make the elephants stay in the forest, yet their habitat was being used for acacia trees and oil palm," says Foead.

"We then realized the importance of this forest and did a survey."

More diverse than Amazon

The new field survey has shown that the Tesso Nilo has more diversity than "anywhere else including the Amazon."

Foead reiterated that they have yet to sample in the most pristine area due to accessibility.

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The survey done by WWF scientists showed that it contained up to 218 vascular plant species in just one single 200 square meter plot.

This is nearly twice as high as the previous number of 114 species recorded using the same sampling technique elsewhere in Sumatra.

It is also much higher than other humid, tropical lowland forests that have been evaluated in 19 other countries, including Brazil, Cameroon, New Guinea, and Peru.

"I am proud that the world's richest forest, Tesso Nilo, is located in the Riau Province.

This heritage should be safeguarded," said the Governor of Riau, H.E. Saleh Djasit in a statement.

"However, situations in Riau are complex, and I am prepared to support all parties involved to come up with agreeable solutions."

A future for Tesso Nilo?

"We urge the government of Indonesia to act now and set aside the Tesso Nilo forest as a protected area for the good of future generations," Agus Purnomo, Executive Director of WWF-Indonesia has said.

"Indonesia has a rare opportunity to make an invaluable contribution to conservation, which the global community would certainly welcome," he added.

Yet time may be running our for Tesso Nilo, "within seven and a half years all the trees in the forest will be logged, based on our investigation," Foead told CNN.

"The World Bank, has given the Sumatran forest less time, its says that by 2005 the forest will be gone," he added.

Yet the WWF is being more realistic about the abolition of logging within the area, recognising this is not realistic instantly, but only within three years and that the greatest threat comes from clear-cutting of forests rather than from selective logging.

The logging that threatens Sumatra is part of a pattern across Indonesia, the WWF says, where large financially troubled corporations, often with foreign ownership, liquidate standing forests for a tiny fraction of their true economic potential and without regard to their biological value.

The WWF, headquartered in Gland, Switzerland, also urged consumer countries, particularly the G-8 group of industrialized nations, to stop the international trade in illegal timber.