Jakarta

MEDIA ADVISORY

ILLEGAL LOGGING AND LINKS TO CORRUPTION

8 February 2011 | Jakarta – With 123 million hectares of forests, Indonesia is home to 10 per
cent of the global forest cover, including the world’s third largest tropical rainforest. The country
is also a leading legal timber supplier to the world’s global markets, but according to
Government estimates some three to five hectares of forest are lost to illegal logging every
minute of every day – for a total estimate of 1.6 to 2.8 million hectares per year.

Illegal logging relies on corruption to stay in business. It requires the complicity of officials
throughout the production chain, from forest to port. It undercuts prices for wood on the global
market, thereby undermining the legitimate industry. At the community level, illegal logging
destroys traditional ways of life centred on the forest, even as some villagers are made
complicit in the deforestation that will harm their own communities.

With so much riding on programmes to reduces harmful emissions from deforestation and
forest degradation in Indonesia, with the Government’s ambitious targets to significantly reduce
emissions, and with the global push to preserve biodiversity, is the link between corruption and
illegal logging the Achilles’ heel of all these good efforts?

UNIC Jakarta is proud to support the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) for
an important discussion on “Illegal Logging and the Links to Corruption in Indonesia”, on
the occasion of this International Year of Forests 2011. The talk is part of UNODC’s monthly
series “Indonesia’s Fight Against Corruption”, and will feature Prof. Rudy Satrio of Universitas
Indonesia, and Berry Nahdian Forqan, Executive Director of WALHI

Date/Time Wednesday , 9 February 2011, 2:00-4:00 pm

Venue Papua Room, United Nations, Menara Thamrin 7 Fl., Jl. M.H.
Thamrin kav. 3

Speakers Prof. Rudy Satrio, Professor of Criminal Law, Universitas Indonesia

Berry Nahdian Forquan, Executive Director of WALHI (Friends of the
Earth Indonesia)

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

Mr. Adila Arief, National information Officer
HP 08111 891 736
adila.arief@unic-jakarta.org

Mr. Michele Zaccheo, Director

HP 0813 835 80908
michele.zaccheo@unic.org

UN Information Centre in Jakarta | Menara Thamrin Building 3A Floor, Jl. M.H. Thamrin kav.3, Jakarta 10250 - INDONESIA
| Tel: +6221 3983-1011/1013; Fax: (6221) 3983 1014; E-mail: unic-jakarta@unic-jakarta.org ; http://www.unic-jakarta.org