Description of Forests and Forestry in East Kalimantan

Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of Borneo, occupies 73% of the land area of the island, which is the third largest island in the world. Kalimantan is subdivided into four Indonesian states. One of these states, East Kalimantan, includes the southeastern parts of the central mountain ranges of the island and lies between approximately 4° north latitude and 2° south latitude Figure 1.1. It has an area of 21 144 km2which occupies about 11% of the whole country. Despite its large area, the population of East Kalimantan, which is about 2.3 million, is only about 1% of the population of Indonesia. Nevertheless, this state has played a key role in Indonesia’s economic development and is a major earner of foreign revenue. This wealth is not due to industrial production or to agricultural plantations but to the rich reserves of natural resources: forests, oil, gas, coal, and other minerals. The exploitation of these resources, which is the main measure of the development of East Kalimantan, increased rapidly after the late 1960s. This chapter will provide the background information for this volume.