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onservationists have urged the government to this month extend a logging moratorium, enforced since 2011, so it would have a stronger legal basis.

Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) Riau chapter head Riko Kurniawan said there was no other choice in saving the forests but to extend and strengthen the moratorium due to severe forestry mismanagement.

'€œThe moratorium can no longer be regulated by a presidential instruction, as it'€™s too weak. The moratorium has not saved the forest in Riau in the past four years and not resolved issues in the field. We still see haze disasters, and land disputes between residents and companies are still rife,'€ Riko said on Thursday.

According to him, a weakness of the moratorium is the exclusion of primary forests, and peatland remaining outside protected forest areas, on the map of the moratorium.

In Riau, for instance, of the approximately 8 million hectares of forest, only 1.9 million ha are included on the map while 70 percent of them are protected and conservation forests.

He also cited the need to conduct an audit and evaluation on licensing issued prior to the implementation of the moratorium.