Floods and landslides have rushed down the sides of mountains earlier this week on the Indonesian island of Nias, destroying villages and causing at least 60 deaths. Deforestation may have caused the floods. Indonesia’s largest environmental group, Walhi, found in a study this year that flash floods have occurred exactly where deforestation was worst in the country. Walhi’s Longgena Ginting said the floods were “really a sign of the environmental destruction of Indonesia,” where he said seven out of 10 logs are illegally cut. Similar links between deforestation and floods have been found in China, Thailand, the Philippines, and Malaysia.
