Better welfare won't stop deforestation

Improving the economic welfare of communities living in forested areas would do little to reduce the widespread illegal logging across the country, environmentalists say. Director of the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law (ICEL) Indro Sugianto said the most effective way to combat illegal logging was to develop an integrated law enforcement system to use against the logging "mafia", which was known to be backed by elements in government and the security forces.