Jakarta - Indonesia's environment minister called a
Guinness World Records report 'slanderous' for marking the nation's
deforestation rate as the world's highest and claimed it used
obsolete data, a media report said Tuesday.
The Jakarta Post reported that Indonesia has entered the Guinness
Book for the second consecutive year as the nation with the highest
rate of deforestation, with its forests clearing at the rate of about
52 square kilometres per day, or 300 football fields each hour.
The Post cited the 2009 Guinness World Records released in
September as saying the deforestation rate was 1.8 million hectares
per year between 2000 and 2005.
State Minister for Environment Rachmat Witoelar was quoted as
calling the report slanderous and claiming it used outdated figures
on Indonesia's forests.
'I am very disturbed by the report because references it used
were not valid,' Witoelar was quoted as saying. He claimed the
country's deforestation rate had been curbed to just 1.08 million
hectares per year during the five years since 2000.
Guinness based its criteria on data from groups such as global
environment watchdog Greenpeace.
Witoelar also said the government had taken several steps to
protect forests as part of its contribution to the global reduction
of greenhouse gas emissions.
'We protect our forests, many provinces and regencies have also
launched a logging moratorium to protect their forests. They are also
eyeing profits from REDD,' he said, referring to the reduction of
emissions from forest deforestation and degradation scheme.
REDD was adopted at the Bali conference on climate change
December last year as a mechanism to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
The Post quoted the forestry ministry's data as showing that the
deforestation rate was a steady 1.8 million hectares annually between
1987 and 1997.
It then spiked the rate to 2.8 million hectares per year until
2000, due mainly to severe forest fires, but the rate fell to 1.08
million hectares per year the next six years.
In July, Indonesia also lodged a protest against Yale University
for its environmental performance index report, which ranked it among
the least environmentally friendly countries. The report, published
in Newsweek's July 7-14 edition, ranked Indonesia 102nd out of 149
nations.
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