The recent proposal by the Australian Government to invest in protecting Indonesia's forests is a very positive step, despite the fact, as the Greens have pointed out, that there is an element of hypocrisy in the move, given that the Howard Government's electoral success in Tasmania has come because of its pro-logging policies.
Nevertheless, the major issue is how to stop the large-scale logging going on in Kalimantan, Sumatra and Irian Jaya/West Papua in particular? Some of the logging is illegal, but who will police this, given that in the past (and probably still), the military have been behind logging in national parks and other protected areas.
Other clearing is taking place to make way for palm oil plantations. Burning of forest areas for palm oil plantations is one of the chief sources of the massive smoke palls that blanket Indonesia and its neighbours each year. These plantations are currently seen as lucrative investments both by those already reaping fortunes from them, and by those who are getting into regional governments, and looking for new sources of investment. Ed Aspinall has found that this is the case, for example in Aceh. The world's consumption of junk food fried in palm oil doesn't look like abating any time soon, and governments all around the world, including the Howard Government, are looking to bio-fuels to solve the looming oil shortage — palm oil being seen as a prime source of bio-fuels. Many of those who reap major profits from palm oil are people who set up their businesses during the Suharto era, often with no real outlay by the so-called 'businessmen', but rather by diverting state funds into private incomes.
So solving the problem of forest clearing is not just a matter of slowing demand for forest products, it would also rely on curbing demand for palm oil, and finding alternative livelihoods for those employed in the industry. Given that many of the Suharto cronies remain in power in Jakarta, there will be a lot of blocks to attempts to stop the palm oil industry acquiring more land, let alone convert their current land back to forests.
Another factor in the rapid extinction of forests and all that live in them, is legal logging. With Regional Autonomy, it is now no longer necessary to bribe key figures associated with Suharto, now the bribery and corruption takes place on the regional or Kabupaten level. So again the problem is how to counter that bribery? Should international aid funding be used to pay Indonesian politicians higher incomes so they will be less liable to take bribes?
Despite the ideas of Bono and those like him that we can solve all the world's problems by throwing money at them, the complexities of the situation on the ground in Indonesia mean that any solution to these problems are a long way off, and rely as much on political will as funding.