Risk to Aceh rainforest grows – how long can Sumatran orangutans and tigers survive?

SOME of the richest and most biodiverse forests in Indonesia will soon be opened up for commercial exploitation under a plan drafted by the new government of Aceh.

The chairman of the Aceh parliament’s spatial planning committee, Mr Anwar (who goes by only one name) has confirmed the plan would reduce the total forest cover from about 68 per cent of the province’s land mass to 45 per cent.

Most of the newly threatened areas are lowland forests, home to orang-utans, tigers, Sumatran rhinos and other endangered species. Conservationists say the plan drastically increases the danger of their extinction.

Much of the forest has been designated ”production forest” since the 1990s, but these areas were saved from logging and agriculture initially because they provided a hiding place for Aceh’s armed Gerakan Aceh Merdeka (GAM) insurgents, and lately by a…