Illegal logging invites disaster, but meanwhile there is money to be made

Why would a South Korean company want to build a highway in a remote region of Indonesia, where no road project could ever turn a profit? For the same reason Malaysian and Indonesian companies are so eager to invest in palm oil in areas with soil so poor the palms will perish. Development projects come with a lucrative piece of paper: a permit to clear the forest. It is Indonesia's high-value tropical logs, not dubious business opportunities, investors want. The proposed South Korean road, for example, has shoulders two kilometres wide. Over the past 10 years about 8 million hectares of Indonesia's tropical forests have, ostensibly, made way for palm oil, coffee, rubber and cocoa plantations. Only about 1.2 million hectares of crops were even planted.