Methodology

Human Rights Watch traveled to Jakarta and West Kalimantan, Indonesia, for nine weeks in May and October 2008 and October 2009, as well as to London in May 2008 and Washington, DC in November 2008 to collect information for this report. We interviewed government officials, analysts, advocates, journalists, and donors in the forestry, governance, and health sectors. This work was supplemented by phone interviews and additional research between May 2008 and October 2009. We collected government data on wood production and consumption, wood imports and exports, forest revenues, health statistics, and budget information, as well as independent analysis of these data from various experts. We also collected forestry production and trade data from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO).

As this report documents, information on law enforcement activities and prosecutions is extraordinarily difficult to obtain. Therefore, we supplemented our research with data collected on these institutions by analysts and NGOs that monitor the judiciary, and forestry and corruption cases in particular. We also collected information from public health experts and local practitioners regarding impediments to the delivery of essential social services and impacts on health outcomes.

A detailed explanation of the methods we used for estimating the amount of illegal logging and missing revenues can be found in the Appendix.

Due to the sensitive nature of our inquiries into corruption and its impacts on failed governance, the identities of many of the individuals we spoke with have been withheld to protect them from retaliation.