Inside Indonesia's largest and ultra-modern pulp and paper mill in northern Sumatra. - - General: General. The Republic of Indonesia is made up of 13 700 islands housing an estimated population of 185 million citizens. Indonesia's vast tropical forests are the most extensive in the whole of Asia and the Pacific and forest exports, after petroleum, provide the country with its second largest source of badly needed foreign exchange. However, deforestation, estimated at 900 000 ha. per year by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, is a major problem. FAO is the executing agency for a major forestry project funded by the World Bank that aims to quantify the extent, types, value and most rational future use of the Indonesian forestry wealth and to provide the country with a long-term plan for all phases of its forestry and forest industries.