Twenty years ago, Indonesia planned a national system for conserving the wide variety of plant and animal species unique to the island chain, but recent political turmoil in the country has led to much of the plan being abandoned.

Illegal logging is now taking its toll on Indonesia's forests, and scientists predict that many unique environments will be lost within five years.

Large parts of Indonesia were proposed as conservation areas, an ambitious plan taking in more than 70% of the territory.

But then the Suharto government gave logging concessions to timber companies. These have been maintained despite changes of government.

Logging gangs operating in Sumatra and Kalimantan have destroyed much of the forest on the edge of national parks.

Erosion

An international group of scientists who visited the area say the destruction of the environment is endangering many plant and animal species found nowhere else in the world. The forests are home to the Sumatran tiger as well as elephants and orang-utans.

The scientists also say indiscriminate logging has far reaching environmental consequences.

Removing forests exposes land to all weathers. Last year, there were extensive floods in deforested regions, which led to deaths and destroyed roads, buildings and crops.

The fires lit by loggers to clear land have also spread uncontrollably - they are thought to be the root cause of the clouds of pollution which blanketed much of South East Asia in 1998 and 1999.

The scientists say action needs to be taken immediately. They say the government must enforce its own environment laws and the army may have to be used to stop the logging.