Indonesia said yesterday it has cut ties with the WWF as it accused the global conservation group of overstepping its mandate in the country and unfairly criticising efforts to extinguish out-of-control forest fires last year. The country said it had sent a letter to the World Wildlife Fund’s domestic office last week terminating a cooperation agreement that stretched back to 1998. The agreement involved joint work in the area of wildlife conservation and forestry, it added. “A cooperation agreement must be in line with its legal mandate and show mutual respect.” The group countered that its activities were within the limits of the cooperation agreement. The group countered that its activities were within the limits of the cooperation agreement. Bambang Hendroyono, the environment ministry’s secretary-general, revealed that the memorandum of understanding with WWF Indonesia, in effect since March 1998, was “no longer appropriate and has to be revised.” He said the decision to terminate, published on the ministry’s website on Jan. 10, followed an evaluation carried out since December 2018 and that WWF Indonesia had been notified about the impending move in March 2019. Under Indonesian law, all NGOs with a permanent presence in the country need an MOU to carry out field work with the ministry. In WWF Indonesia’s case, that partnership was due to expire in 2023, but the ministry decided to terminate it at the end of 2019, three years ahead of schedule. The move effectively ends much of WWF’s forest conservation work in Indonesia, which entails field conservation work such as patrolling national parks to detect threats to protected areas. Kuntoro, a former energy minister, said he was shocked at the environment ministry’s decision but would respect it. He said WWF Indonesia would speed up the handover of affected projects to the authorities, and would remain committed to supporting the government’s push for sustainable development. WWF Indonesia has 24 field offices in the country and employs 500 people working on various programs. It has ongoing cooperation agreements with other government institutions, including the fisheries ministry, the rural development ministry, the home affairs ministry, the land ministry, the peatland restoration agency, and various local governments. All of these are unaffected by the termination of the agreement with the environment ministry.