(1) A UK Government/World Bank sponsored report, 4 Jun 07 noted that Indonesia is world's 3rd largest CO2 emitter owing mostly to land use emissions, with palm oil plantations one of the two biggest causes. Source Reuters,
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSJAK26206220070604
"CARS running on palm biodiesel may emit less carbon but once the overall production of the biofuel is scrutinised, its usage actually inflicts more damage on the global climate.
This is because large tracts of oil palm plantations in Malaysia and Indonesia, the world’s top two growers of the crop, sit on peat forests."
Global demand for alternative forms of energy - such as palm oil - is putting pressure on Indonesia's shrinking carbon sinks as plantation companies vie for land.
It is an irony that the global community will need to address if green energy is going to help stop climate change, rather than accelerate it.
"An interesting assessment of the expected rate of development of oil palm plantations is provided in a report by the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry in co-operation with the European Union (Sargeant, 2001): “The world demand for palm oil...to be met, 300 000 ha of new estates will need to be planted in each of the next 20 years. We predict that.. the largest slice of this new land will come from within Indonesia…It is inevitable that most new oil palm will be in the wetlands, as the more 'desirable' dry lands of the island are now occupied…."…It suggests that over 50% of oil palm plantations, at least in Sumatra (but similar considerations apply in parts of Kalimantan), will be developed on peatlands."
(5) "Tropical rainforest: - conversion to palm oil plantation releases GHG emissions which correspond to 70 to 300 years of carbon offset from palm oil biodiesel. (and that's apart from the biodiversity impacts)" - Professor Roland Clift (advisor to DEFRA), actual text from powerpoint pres to Royal Academy of Engineering, 14 Jun 07- coverage http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1909827.ece
(6) Further to the more recent announced biofuel incentives in the EU and elsewhere, palm oil companies now intend to plant 26 million hectares of Indonesia - a larger area than UK - with oil palms, as reported by NGO Watch Indonesia, translation at: http://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/Green_Gold_Biodiesel_%20Players_in_Indone... ; and Indonesia has recently been awarded a Guinness World Record for deforestation, at the rate of 300 football pitches an hour according to Greenpeace - Reuters, http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/41711/story.htm
(7) As seen for example on BBC1's "Saving Planet Earth", palm oil companies are using bulldozers to clear away large tracts of forest - view podcast of this at http://www.bbc.co.uk/savingplanetearth/orangutan.shtml. Industry references to using so-called "degraded" land for palm oil may refer to forest that has been logged for the largest trees, as well as peatland.
(8) 5 million biofuel 'refugees' likely to be created in West Kalimantan alone says UN Indigenous Issues chief: http://www.checkbiotech.org/green_News_Biofuels.aspx?infoId=14672; the rising palm oil price also spurring violent human displacement in Colombia, a pattern likely to be repeated around the tropics: http://environment.guardian.co.uk/energy/story/0,,2095349,00.html, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article18757...,
"Deforestation, particularly in the case of palmoil and soybeans, could lead to… devastation of the last remaining rain forests in Borneo and the Amazon region. There will not be a sufficient quantity of sustainable vegetable oils available to cover the new demand from bio-fuels and the current consumption growth in the rest of the world (China, India etc).";
"Sustainability certification for biofuel feedstock addresses (micro-)production circumstances only. The real sustainability issue of current biofuel use is that it leads to a (macro-) expansion of feedstock production. Certification will not change the fact that for each ton of oil that is made unavailable for traditional users an additional ton of oil needs to be grown elsewhere… ";
"Unilever is chair of the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO)". Source: http://ec.europa.eu/energy/res/legislation/doc/biofuels/contributions/in...
"The import of oilseeds or vegetable oils for biodiesel production (or for replacing domestic oilseeds which are diverted to oilseed manufacture) raises major questions about sustainability. One…major source is palm oils from Malaysia and Indonesia: a rapid increase in demand could be met by unsustainable production on rainforest land. Sustainable certification could be considered as a solution, the EU importing only certified sustainable products. However, unless the scheme was adopted worldwide, sustainable exports to EU would simply be replaced by unsustainable production for other markets."
Borneo, a "hotbed" of new species: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4474257.stm,
Palm Oil Roundtable "not welcome" in Papua New Guinea: http://www.ecoforestry.org.pg/pressreleases/Palm%20oil%20roundtable%20no...
Ugandan Rainforest "saved from palm oil" http://allafrica.com/stories/200705250010.html
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http://www.foei.org/en/media/archive/2007/worlds-biggest-palm-oil-trader...
friends of the earth international
press release
for immediate release: tuesday 3rd july 2007
world's biggest palm oil trader shamed
JAKARTA (INDONESIA) / AMSTERDAM (THE NETHERLANDS), 3 July 2007 - Wilmar, the world's biggest trader in palm oil, is illegally logging rainforests, setting forests on fire and violating the rights of local communities in Indonesia, according to a new report published today by Friends of the Earth Netherlands. [1]
Paul de Clerck, Corporates Campaigner at Friends of the Earth International, said:
“This report reveals that Indonesian palm oil traded by Wilmar is scandalous and damaging the environment. Forests are being cut and burnt down illegally, Indonesian laws are being broken and local people are suffering.â€
Europe is one of the world's biggest palm oil importers, with palm oil used as an ingredient in many food products and cosmetics, and increasingly as a biofuel. Wilmar supplies multinational companies such as Unilever, Nestle and Cargill.
Rully Syumanda, Forest Campaigner at Friends of the Earth Indonesia / WALHI said “Europe's growing demand for palm oil is leading to environmental and social devastationâ€.
The palm oil industry has attempted to market the trade as environmentally and socially sustainable, but this report exposes these policies as hollow and inadequate. Singapore-based multinational Wilmar is a member of the industry-led Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and is funded by the World Bank's private arm as well as private European banks which have codes of conduct against unsustainable palm oil. Rabobank and Standard Chartered Bank are the main European financers.
Anne van Schaik of Friends of the Earth Netherlands said: “Rabobank apparently has a code of conduct for financing palm oil, but absurdly this doesn't apply to the handful of general loans that the bank gives to Wilmar. The code of conduct is therefore meaningless - boosting Rabobank's image but doing nothing to protect against illegal deforestation.â€
The report demonstrates the danger of the European Union's recent commitment to replace 10% of its transport fuel market with biofuels by 2020.
“If the European Union continues to promote palm oil imports in order to meet its recently-adopted 10% biofuels target, this will simply aggravate the severe environmental and social impacts in countries like Indonesia. The European Commission should accept that setting such a rigid target was premature and drop it until the situation in producer countries has been fully assessed,†de Clerck added.
Milieudefensie and two Indonesian non-profit organisations investigated three plantations of Wilmar International Ltd. on West Kalimantan, Indonesia. Specifically, the report reveals:
* The Indonesian authorities are suing Wilmar for intentional and systematic illegal burning of forests to clear land for plantations
* Wilmar has violated an Indonesian law that requires approval of the Environmental Impact Assessment before palm oil development begins
* Wilmar is clearing forest beyond its allocated borders and without the legally required permits
* Wilmar has cleared areas of forest that local communities have customary rights to, without even consulting them
Friends of the Earth Netherlands (Milieudefensie) has filed complaints to the Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil and to the private arm of the World Bank - the International Finance Corporation.
[contacts…]
notes to editors
[1] This information in contained in two reports:
`Policy, practice, pride and prejudice' online at: http://www.foeeurope.org/publications/2007/Wilmar_Palm_Oil_Environmental...
`Buyers and financiers of the Wilmar Group' online at: http://www.foeeurope.org/publications/2007/Wilmar_Palm_Oil_Financers.pdf
*A photo of forest fires in Indonesia can be found at:* http://www.foeeurope.org/press/2007/July3_PDC_Wilmar_PalmOil.htm
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