At this moment I believe it would be difficult for Indonesia to ignore the economic impact large foreign businesses bring from trading palm oil, as it alone accounts for quite significant portion of GDP at 4.5% and 7% of export value in 2010 (http://www.gbgindonesia.com/en/agriculture/article/2011/overview_of_palm_oil_in_indonesia.php). What Indonesian government has been trying to do, is reducing the emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) through United Nations initiative. Recently, this has been expanded to sustainable forest management and protection of biodiversity as well. Norway, is one of the developed countries who have allocated up to US$1 billion of financial support if Indonesia could reduce its GHG emissions by 41% (http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/04/15/ri-norway-agree-continue-redd.html).

How we treat the rainforest clearance is almost always through low-cost burning which contributes a lot to air pollution, for the sake of profit. If we could implement a more sustainable forest management such as determined in REDD+ then that would to some extent help in raising standards of living. Our economy is moving at a steady pace, so I think cutting down forests wildly would instead jeopardize this potential economic growth in the future.

Government may opt to prioritize to subsidize more on health and education development first to follow its economic demand and continue its competitive advantage.