US Indonesia Forests
FILE - In this June 21, 2013, file photo, firemen spray water to extinguish a bushfire in Pekanbaru, Riau province, Indonesia,. Indonesia is highlight...
FILE - In this June 21, 2013, file photo, firemen spray water to extinguish a bushfire in Pekanbaru, Riau province, Indonesia,. Indonesia is highlighting its progress in curbing the environmental destruction that has depleted forests and made the Southeast Asian nation a leading source of greenhouse gases. But environmentalists are unconvinced. The blazes in peat swamp forests on Indonesia's Sumatra island have sent massive plumes of smog across the sea to neighboring Singapore and Malaysia, both of which have grown impatient with Indonesia's response to the problem that occurs nearly every year. (AP Photo/Rony Muharrman, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Indonesia is highlighting its progress in curbing the environmental destruction that has depleted forests and made the Southeast Asian nation a leading source of greenhouse gases. But environmentalists are unconvinced.
They say pulp and palm oil plantations are still expanding at an alarming rate in Sumatran forests, despite efforts by the government and industry. That expansion has contributed to climate change and threatens endangered tigers and orangutans.
More than 80 percent of Indonesia's emissions are due to clearing of what is the world's third-largest area of rainforest, after Brazil and the Democratic Republic of Congo. About half of Indonesia's rainforest has already been destroyed.
