Finally! Palm oil companies recognise the value of forests

The annual RSPO meeting was held in Jakarta last week, and members voted in favour of our proposal. This means that the RSPO must now publish a position statement recognising the value of secondary and degraded forests, and make sure that plantation companies and auditors don’t just write them off as dead wood.

Whilst we’re pleased with the result of the vote, the RSPO is a voluntary initiative, representing less than half of Indonesian palm oil companies, and not all RSPO-member companies have been following the rules. To really safeguard these forests, the Indonesian government needs to recognise their value as well.

via Greenpeace UK.

Indonesia forests being ‘destroyed’

In a report on Tuesday, Greenpeace said it had confidential documents from a Sinar Mas subsidiary, Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), suggesting that the company did not intend to fulfil a promise to source its wood from plantations alone after 2009.

“From analysis of Indonesian government and confidential Sinar Mas maps and data, as well as on-the-ground investigations … APP continues to acquire and destroy rainforest and peatland to feed its two pulp mills in Sumatra,” the environmental group said in the report, referring to the once forest-clad western Indonesian island.

Read more at Al Jazeera English.