Indonesia Calls On Wealthy Nations To Pay Developing World To Protect Forests - Independent

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Jakarta - Indonesia wants rich countries to pay developing nations to preserve their forests, which are vital to help remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, the country's environment minister said on Tuesday. The proposal will be tabled at a UN conference on climate change to be held in the Indonesian resort island of Bali in December, Rachmat Witoelar said.

"Preserving our forest means we can't exploit it for our economic benefits. We can't build roads or mines," Witoelar said. "But we make an important contribution to the world by providing oxygen. Therefore countries like Indonesia and Brazil should be compensated by developed countries for preserving their resources," he said.

Deforestation has substantially impeded the ability of forests to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The biomass in forests absorbs and stores carbon dioxide, keeping a portion of gases blamed for global warming out of the atmosphere.

About 10 percent of the world's remaining tropical forest is found in Indonesia, which has a total forest area of more than 91 million hectares, according to, a portal on rainforests Rainforestweb. It said Indonesia has already lost an estimated 72 percent of its original frontier forest, and half of what remains is currently threatened.

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