With the growing demand for construction of buildings in the tobacco estates, the local people in eastern Sumatra had started earning through cutting timber since the late 19th century. In 1879, the European planters formed the Deli Planters’ Association (Deli Planters Vereeniging or DPV) to promote the plantation industry on Sumatra’s East Coast and to represent their interests with the Dutch government. One of DPV’s main activities was lobbying to influence forestry policies, and in so doing these planters were allowed to transform the primeval forest into profitable plantations. After the Dutch gained control of Sumatra, large areas of tropical forests were continuously shrunk and deteriorated. Even today, Indonesia has one of the highest rates of deforestation in the world.
