Call for more trees to stop landslides

But Greg Clough from the Jakarta-based Centre for International Forestry Research said the scientific community was divided on the question of whether deforestation leads to floods that cause landslides. "There is no simple explanation," Mr Clough said. "Blaming upland farmers for massive downstream flooding can cause unnecessary suffering through policies that restrict their livelihoods." At the scene of the landslide in Central Java, local officials insisted that deforestation was not to blame.