Indonesia reduced the extent of areas protected under the country’s moratorium on new logging concessions, reports the Jakarta Globe.
A map released by the Ministry of Forestry on Monday lists 55 million hectares of primary forest and 17 million hectares of peatlands that are off-limits to development through December 31, 2012. The government had earlier said that 96 million hectares would be covered by the moratorium.
The new map however is far more detailed than the previous map, potentially making it more useful to policy makers. The new map consists of 291 smaller maps on a scale of 1:250,000 versus the prior version which was 1:19 million.
But the new map does not included degraded or secondary forests that are excluded from the moratorium.
Environmentalists say that without including secondary forests, Indonesia will be unlikely to meet its emissions reductions commitments.
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