11 m² of rainforest will be reforested on Borneo

Logging (legal and illegal), oil plantations and population pressure have decimated Indonesia's forests over the past 25 years. Between 1990 and 2005 alone, the forested area in Indonesia decreased by 20%. In Indonesia, tropical rainforests are still disappearing faster than in any other country in the world (GIZ, 2015). One region particularly affected is the island of Borneo, where deforestation rates are much higher than in the rest of the country. The cause of deforestation can be traced to a large extent to the industrialized countries: the EU is one of the largest importers of products derived from illegal deforestation. 25% of these imports from illegal deforestation come from Indonesia, mainly palm oil. Germany, together with the Netherlands, is the largest consumer of palm oil in the EU. This is partly due to the extensive use of palm oil in the food industry and partly because we use palm oil for our biofuels (Fern, 2015).

The loss of forest has serious consequences for biodiversity in Borneo: orangutans and forest elephants are just the most prominent victims of deforestation. The indigenous population, the Dayak, have also lived in harmony with the forest for centuries, using sustainable farming methods to produce food, medicinal plants and building materials. Due to the loss of the ecosystem's biocapacity, i.e. nature's ability to provide food, water and much more, the local population is losing its natural livelihood. In many places, forests are being replaced by monoculture plantations, e.g. palm oil, which destroy the soil and whose profits do not benefit the local population.