Indonesia's deforested area close to Ireland's size

Indonesia beat Brazil in deforested as the country's area accounts to about 60,000 sq km of virgin forest, which is close to the size of Ireland, says a new study.

Researchers from the University of Maryland monitored the land between 2000 and 2012 using satellites, and found that the country had surpassed Brazil losing 8,400 sq km of forest as compared to Brazil's 4,600 sq km in 2012, which had increased greenhouse gas emissions and a loss of biodiversity, BBC News reported.

The government moratorium on deforestation, which was signed in 2011, was projected to decrease the pace of forest loss, but apparently the land was cleared to accommodate palm oil plantations and other farms.

The immense forest fires in Indonesia to clear land in 2013 had caused heavy smog to blanket neighbouring countries such as Malaysia and Singapore, triggering health concerns.

Karishma Vaswani from BBC said that as per the environmental activists, corrupt politicians sell off large parts of rainforests for profit, and point to the need for more observations and sanctions in order to stop the rate at which Indonesia is losing its forests.

Norway had promised a billion dollars to Indonesia, only if it proved to be serious about putting a stop to deforestation, and it was reported that though Norway had paid almost 50 million dollars to the country to help start new institutions for the cause, Indonesia would start to getting bulky amounts of funds only if deforestation is slowed down.

The study was published in the journal Nature Climate Change.