Indonesia Deforestation: New moratorium aims to stop clearing of rainforest

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Indonesia's government says it plans to curb deforestation by cracking down on forest-clearing. Indonesia is home to some of the world's richest and most diverse tropical rainforests. However, some experts say the new plan might be more complicated than it seems. CGTN's Silkina Ahluwalia reports.

In an effort to conserve Indonesia's lush rainforests, the government is planning to issue a moratorium aiming to stop companies from converting natural forests and peatlands into palm oil plantations and logging concessions, among others.

YUYUN INDRADI ENVIRONMENTALIST "The moratorium outlines the protection of primary forests and peat lands. However, most of those forests are already being protected by higher laws. The government now needs to focus more on protecting secondary forests."

Those secondary forests make up millions of hectares of land and are primarily at stake.

For now, the government is still issuing permits to companies to use those protected lands.

SILKINA AHLUWALIA JAKARTA, INDONESIA "Indonesia's tropical rainforests are the third-largest in the world, after Brazil and Congo. But huge acres of those lands have been cleared in the past decade to make way for industrial plantations. Experts have warned for years that this does not only threaten the environment but also the wildlife community that lives among those forests."

But those warnings have largely been ignored.

Indonesia is one of the largest exporters of palm oil making the industry a strong driver for economic growth.

ARI ROMPAS FOREST CAMPAIGNER, GREENPEACE INDONESIA "Protecting Indonesia's rainforests equals to protecting its economy. Because the consequences of deforestation has resulted in a loss of Indonesia's rich biodiversity and other ecological disasters. It's time for the government to realize that converting rainforests to plantations is not the only way to be profitable."

Indonesia plans to cut down carbon dioxide emissions by at least 29 percent by 2030.

The plan could be a key step towards reaching Indonesia's goals of reducing its emissions through deforestation.

Silkina Ahluwalia, CGTN, Jakarta.