Environmental hangover from Indonesia's palm oil thirst

Seed Daily via AFP: The roar of chainsaws has replaced birdsong, the once-lush, green jungle scorched to a barren grey. The equivalent of six football pitches of forest is lost every minute in Indonesia. The disappearance of the trees has pushed thousands of animals -- from the birds they harbour and sustain to orangutans, gibbons and black panthers -- out of their natural homes and habitats.

They have been replaced by plantations that are too nutrient-poor to support such wildlife, instead dedicated solely to producing fruit that is pulped to make oil used globally in products ranging from food to fuel.

A palm oil tree can yield useable fruit in three years and continue doing so for the next 25 years. But such wealth creation has meant environmental destruction.  "We don't see too many orangutans any more", said a worker with a weather-beaten face, taking a break in the shade of a hut built on a path gouged out of the forest floor.

Experts believe there are about 50,000 to 60,000 orangutans left in the wild, 80 percent of them in Indonesia's Borneo and the rest in Malaysia. Exact data on their decline is hard to come by, say primatologists.

"What we see now is a contest between orangutans and palm oil for a home," said Sri Suci Utami Atmoko from National University in Jakarta. "You can judge that the population is depleting from the loss of orangutan habitats."….

Deforestation and forest burning for oil palm plantation in the buffer zone of Bukit Tigapuluh National Park in Riau Province, Sumatra, Indonesia. Shot by Aidenvironment, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license

Palm Oil Producer Violations Exposed

A series of major Asian palm oil companies that are members of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) have been exposed for violations of RSPO guidelines. As a recent press release from the Forest Peoples Programme (FPP) demonstrates in documenting several of these cases, these violations raise the question of whether the RSPO is actually able to enforce its own standards. 

It was recently established by Green Advocates, representing the Kru tribes in Liberia, that a subsidiary of Indonesia’s largest palm oil producer, Sina Mas, had clearly violated the RSPO’s New Planting Procedure by not advertising plans to clear and plant oil palms and not publicising a High Conservation Value Assessment. According to RSPO standards, the company should cease clearance until due process is followed, especially as community members have expressed concern that their land is being taken without their free, prior and informed consent. 

The FPP press release documents further violations of RSPO guidelines in Liberia, Cameroon, Malaysia, and Indonesia, many uncovered through a partnership between FPP, Sawit Watch and other partners to review the practices of 15 major palm oil companies in West Africa and Southeast Asia. It concludes by noting Sawit Watch’s concern that the RSPO must significantly improve its system as its credibility is clearly at stake. 

Find the full press release here. Download FPP and Sawit Watch’s review of 15 RSPO members practices here.

Palm Oil and Bioenergy Strategies in SE Asia - Regional Seminar

Via SEI

As the cultivation and processing of palm oil and other biofuel foodstocks continues to expand in Southeast Asia, increasing its economic significance with support from international finance institutions, regional development banks, and governments, the region is witnessing unprecedented land use changes and changes in the exploitation of natural resources and local livelihoods. In this context, the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) is hosting a regional seminar in Bangkok, Thailand, from 15-16 November 2012 on “Palm oil and bioenergy strategies in South East Asia: Review of field lessons and debate on ways ahead.” 

The seminar will seek to support the coordination of existing governmental policies, regulations and regional strategies for palm oil and bioenergy through the provision of lessons learnt and new research data from case studies on land use change and water resource management in palm oil plantations and feedstock processing. It aims to contribute to an evidence-based dialogue on the rigour of the existing strategies, and to consider how further implementation can be enhanced to promote sustainable production. The seminar will include presentations of national and regional bioenergy and palm oil strategies, lessons from case studies in Thailand, Indonesia, and Cambodia, and a panel debate, involving participation from governments, regional development banks, companies and NGOs. 

The seminar will draw from the lessons the SEI has learned from its experience in the field, including case studies on community grievances and water governance in the oil palm sector in central Kalimantan, Indonesia (download here) and on how the European Union can revise its policies to support ‘sustainable’ palm oil cultivation (download here). SEI recently hosted at seminar on “Promoting Biofuels, Creating Scarcity?” in Brussels (learn more here).