The ‘Lungs of the Earth’ and ‘Paradise on Earth’ are descriptions associated with Indonesia’s forests because of their beauty and as home to the largest mega biodiversity on earth, accounting for 15.5% of the world’s flora and 10% of the world’s fauna (MoEF, 2014). Many people also depend directly on these forests, especially indigenous people and local communities.

Indonesia’s legal forest area covers around 133 million ha but only 93.6 million ha is still forested.[1] Unfortunately, Indonesia has continued to loose its forests at an alarming rate. Margono, et.  al  (2014) reported that total primary forests loss between 2000 to 2012 was 6.02 million ha, with increase of average rate of 47,600 ha per year. Between 2009-2011, deforestation in Indonesia reached 1,240,000 ha. 40% of the deforestation took place in Sumatra (Greenpeace, 2013). The natural forest and peat lands in Indonesia have been replaced by other land uses, mostly for industrial plantations, such as oil palm and pulpwood.

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