JAKARTA — Indonesia’s environment and forestry ministry said on Wednesday it ended a 25-year conservation agreement with the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) because the group let a forest where it operated burn. “The WWF Indonesia Foundation deeply regrets the unilateral decision taken by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry to terminate our decades-long agreement,” Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, chairman of WWF Indonesia’s advisory board, said on Tuesday. The burnt forest concession referred to by the ministry was given to WWF by the government for restoration purposes in 2015, according to Elis Nurhayati, a spokeswoman for WWF. Thirty WWF projects with the environment and forestry ministry will be affected by the termination, including one involving the translocation of critically endangered Sumatran rhinos within East Kalimantan. WWF was also part of a team rescuing endangered Javan rhinos in the Ujung Kulon National Park on Java island.

Source: National Post January 29, 2020 11:37 UTC