Indonesia's tropical forests, the most extensive in Asia and the third-largest in the world, are rich in many ways. But striking a balance between their continued economic development, and conserving them to protect the local environment and the global climate, is difficult.
It is one of many contentious points in international negotiations on a successor to the Kyoto Protocol. Officials from Indonesia and other countries will meet again in Bonn, Germany, next month to try to conclude a deal by December.
Forests play a crucial role in regulating greenhouse gases blamed for warming the world. Their foliage absorbs huge quantities of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas. When forests are cut or burned, they release the gas into the atmosphere.
However, Indonesia's forests and the land they cover are also an immediate and major source of wealth for the nation as it seeks to sustain growth and employment.
Exports of timber and other forest products, including pulp and paper, are worth more than US$5 billion a year. Forest-related activity remains an important source of income and employment for hundreds of thousands of people.
In the 1960s, 82 per cent of Indonesia was forested. Today, the figure has dropped to 49 per cent. Between 1990 and 2005, Indonesia lost 28 million hectares of forest, including nearly 22 million hectares of virgin forest. The destruction and degradation are the result of various forces. Logging (much of it illegal), mining, human settlement, subsistence farming and cutting firewood have all played a part. So, too, has the clearance and burning of forests to make way for palm oil and timber plantations.