FILE PHOTO: File picture of firefighters trying to extinguish forest fires at Sebangau National Park area in Palangka Raya, Central Kalimantan province, Indonesia, September 14, 2019. REUTERS/Willy Kurniawan
SINGAPORE/JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia has scaled back protection for some of the world's most important tropical forests ahead of the worst season for fires because of budget cuts due to the coronavirus, the environment ministry said.
At risk are forests bigger than any outside the Amazon and Congo and which are home to more than a tenth of the world's mammal species - including the rare orangutan - and nearly a fifth of its birds.
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