Greenpeace holds Riau province key to Indonesia's forest management success

International nature conservationist organization Greenpeace has regarded Riau province in Sumatra as a testing ground towards the success for the Indonesian government in protecting the country's biodiversity and endangered animals, a statement released by the organization said on Thursday. The success in carrying out the task can be ensured by enhanced law enforcement and zero deforestation policy that is backed up with strong commitments demonstrated by plantation and forestry business in the area, it said. "Government needs to take real steps in saving the remaining forest in Riau from destruction incited by uncontrollable expansion of palm oil plantations. One fifth of the country's forest destruction from 2009 to 2011 occurred in the province. The success in saving the remaining forest in Riau can be the key to efforts in protecting Indonesian forest," Greenpeace forest campaigner Yuyun Indradi said at a recent seminar. Speaking at the seminar entitled "Towards Zero Deforestation, Protecting the Remaining Riau Forest" held in Riau's capital of Pekanbaru, Yuyun said that Riau deposits the largest carbon reserves in the region, while at the same time the province apparently hosts the largest deforestation activities in the country. Due to such activities, Riau has seen many disasters that happened annually. Among the disasters were smoke haze stemming from large-scale plantation expansion and flooding incited by environment degradation and high pace of deforestation. Besides the disasters, the province also saw rampant conflicts between locals and plantation owners related to claims of plantation areas. Greenpeace, however, learned that despite those disasters, Riau has inspired the government to adopt policies and measures related to forest conservancy efforts. Among those policies were implementation of good forest management practices in Segamai and Serapung villages located in Pelalawan regency and small-scaled oil palm plantation in Dosan village located in Siak Sri Indrapura regency. Large palm oil and paper firms operating in the province also have voiced their commitment to zero deforestation. "But it is not enough if it is not followed by other firms such as APRIL (Asia Pacific Resources International Limited), Cargill and Musim Mas. Greenpeace and several parties have urged them to stop their unruly practices in managing their plantations there," Yuyun said. Riau has been seeing massive forest fire disasters annually that came up from plantation expansion conducted by locals and plantation owners. The smoke from forest fire in Riau expanded to neighboring countries of Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.