June 6, 2007 - BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (AP): The new governor of Indonesia's tsunami-ravaged Aceh province declared a moratorium on logging Wednesday as part of efforts to develop a new long-term forest management strategy. 

Irwandi Yusuf said all logging would be banned indefinitely. 

Aceh's decades-long separatist insurgency meant logging was limited to rebels and rogue elements within the military. But a recent peace deal opened up previously inaccessible virgin forests. 

And with nearly 130,000 homes destroyed by the 2004 tsunami, demand for timber has been almost insatiable. Some international and local aid organizations have even been accused of buying illegal logs. 

"This is part of our long-term plan to come up with a durable and fair forestry management plan,'' said Yusuf, adding he hoped the move would minimize natural disasters. 

It was not immediately clear what penalties violators face. 

Environmental groups say Indonesia, with the world's third-largest tropical forest reserves behind the Amazon and the Congo basin, loses more than 2 million hectares of trees every year. 

Aceh, on the northern tip of Sumatra island, loses an equivalent of two soccer fields of forest daily, or 20 hectares (49 acres), according to the local environmental group WALHI. 

The December 2004 tsunami killed more than 230,000 people in a dozen countries, including 160,000 people in Aceh alone. 

Rebuilding is more than halfway complete, with some 70,000 homes still needed. 

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