A two-year moratorium on new permits to convert natural forests has been announced by Indonesia, according to the latest International Tropical Timber market report.
But it will not affect operations of industrial timber estates and forest concession development programmes.
Any permits granted for plantations before 2011 will not be affected by the moratorium.
From 2011 plantation business and others will be permitted to extend their operations only to degraded or idle land, with 12 million ha set aside for this purpose.
The moratorium is part of the US$1bn partnership agreement between Norway and Indonesia for forest conservation projects in Indonesia.
