Deforestation in Indonesia is not deniable caused by the utilization of the wood industry era in the 1970s, the other factor that contributed to is a political system and economic corruption, which consider natural resources especially forest as the commodity that can be exploited for political will. This year, utilization permit of forest (HPH) for 35 years has been “sale” under Soeharto regime to businessmen who close to him. Massive cut for logs have been occurred since then, Illegal logging also intact along the way and unavoidable. Best wood with high-value become the most targeted like Ulin, Merbau, Meranti, and Jati with a diameter of more than 1 m, been cut for sake of economic. A massive flow of logs from Sumatra and Borneo keep flowing unstoppably to meet global demand.

In 1998, the situation even worst and unstoppable. The worst deforestation occurred during 1999-2004 when Indonesia enacted The Regional Autonomy regulation. The local leader followed the same way as Soeharto regime, the permit for forest utilization becomes a commodity that can be a sale. In 2004, the Regional Authonomy revised resulted in the issuance of the permit for forest utilization was taken back to the central government except for plantation and mining permits. Statistic for deforestation tends to decrease since then, this can be affected by 2 factors; First, the forested area has swallowed. Second, it probably has changed to palm oil plantation.