Environmentalists say a tropical forest that is home to critically endangered orangutans on Borneo island is being logged more than a year after Indonesia's forestry and environment ministry ordered a halt to activity.
Greenpeace said its investigations at the Sungai Putri forest showed a logging operation under way with at least six illegal settlements that operate at night and some in areas with orangutan nests.
The 57,000-hectare forest, populated with as many as 1200 orangutans, is testing the government's ability to enforce its moratorium on drainage and exploitation of Indonesia's extensive peatland forests, which was declared after massive dry season fires in 2015.
The fires, which destroyed 2.6 million hectares, highlighted the huge risks that pulp wood and palm oil companies have taken in draining swampy peatlands for industrial plantations, making them highly combustible.
The latest investigation is the second revelation in less than a year that commercial exploitation of the forest continues.
Photos and drone footage taken by activists in July showed an extensive drainage canal full of water, heavy earth-moving equipment on the land and planting of pulp wood tree seedlings despite an order in March from the Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya for the company responsible to cease operations.
"This is a major embarrassment for the Indonesian government, which has consistently promised to protect Sungai Putri," Greenpeace said in a statement.
The ministry's director-general of law enforcement and its director of environmental disputes did not respond to calls or text messages.
Exploitation of the Sungai Putri forest and Chinese investment in a related wood-processing plant is supported by provincial and district officials in West Kalimantan province on Borneo.
Indonesian company, Moharison Pawan Khatulistiwa, has a forestry ministry permit for logging in the forest but that is now overridden by the moratorium on peatland development.
Greenpeace said it was unclear whether the company was carrying out the logging or if other parties had taken advantage of roads built by the company to further encroach on the forest.
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