One of the last surviving great rainforests of the world is in New Guinea ( West Papua, with approximately 30 million surviving hectares, and independent Papua New Guinea to the west of the island ).

Logging companies, in which the Indonesian military often have a stake, and transmigrants, are cutting down this forest at an alarming rate. Some times fires, which are started deliberately to clear areas of forest, go completely out of control, speeding up the rainforest loss, destroying tribal land, and polluting the air which we all breathe. Illegal logging and export is an increasing problem.

With hardwood forest largely cut down in Indonesia's Sumatra, Kalimantan and Sulawesi, West Papua is fast becoming the new focus of loggers' attention.

See also:
Greenpeace Document on Logging in Indonesia and Papua (2003)