This paper examines the conversion of Indonesia’s natural forests to timber and tree crop plantations, notably oil palm. The principal aims are to understand the impact of this process on natural forest and on forest-dwelling people, and to establish whether past and present policies governing this process are meeting their objectives.

This paper presents the combined results of two separate orangutan survey efforts and an assessment of land cover change analysis in the Danau Sentarum, National Park (DNSP), West Kalimantan, Indonesia These studies show that the DNSP and surrounding areas contain high numbers of orangutans, making these populations of global significance to the species survival in the wild. However, in the park and its surrounding areas, 40,339 ha habitat disappeared between 1973 and 1990, and 32,586 ha between 1990 and 1997.

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Based on the best available remote sensing data from before 1990, the total area of formally eligible lands in Indonesia for the aff orestation and reforestation (A/R) Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) activities under the Kyoto protocol is about 46 M ha.

What policy lessons derive from the half-century of banana expansion in the coastal region? For that whole period bananas had a catalytic role in promoting coastal deforestation. At first, this was mostly through direct banana frontier expansion. Later the gradual settlement effects proved key. Modest credit subsidies, the large-scale construction and improvement of roads and ports, and a devalued exchange rate were probably the most important policies that contributed to the expansion of banana production, though they varied in importance during the different periods.