On May 7-11, CIFOR led a study tour through the provinces of West Sumatra and Riau in Indonesia. The trip, from Padang to Pekanbaru, covered a range of contrasting land uses from fishing, farming and small-scale agroforestry, to massive pulp and paper and oil palm plantations.
The pace of change has been particularly dramatic in Riau: forest cover has gone from 78% in 1982 to 33% in 2005. But other provinces and forests around the world are at risk as large scale investors seek more farmland. Will the "great sucking sound" coming from fast-growing global commodity markets leave room...
