It seems a paradoxical but it is true: the massive logging authorized by the government leaves no room for illegal logging. It is the case of Indonesia: with millions of hectares of forests being cleared each year to make way for palm-oil or pulp plantations, even illegal loggers are now starting to see the impact of dwindling rainforests.
Unlike previous years when illegal loggers were spotted with top quality wood, the National Police this year have only been able to seize low quality goods during a series of raids conducted between Nov. 8 and Nov. 26.
"The quantity and quality of illegal logging has dropped significantly, but that's because there isn't as much forest area" West Kalimantan police chief Brig. Gen. Unggung Cahyono said to the Jakarta Globe.
During the operation 6,300 logs of woods were confiscated, but they were mainly under 1 meter in diameter. The dwindling rate of illegal logging seems to confirm earlier estimates from the Indonesian Forestry Ministry that there is now less forest to log.
Indonesia had been losing 3.5 million hectares of forest per year since 2003, but this number was reduced to 1.1 million hectares in 2009 and 700,000 hectares in 2010. Yet, Indonesia still has one of the highest rates of deforestation in the world, ranking second after Nigeria in terms of deforestation.