Indonesia urged to ban new palm oil plantations

Indonesia should make permanent its temporary ban on new permits for palm oil plantations to advance progress on tackling deforestation and meet its climate goals, environmentalists say.

Home to the world’s third-largest tropical forests and also its biggest palm-oil producer, Indonesia introduced a three-year freeze on plantation permits that expires in September.

The moratorium sought to prevent forest fires, deforestation and land conflicts, help meet emissions reduction targets set under the Paris climate accord, boost oversight and accelerate efforts to increase yields among smaller palm oil producers.

Yuyun Harmono, climate justice campaign manager at the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (WALHI), said a three-year ban was not long enough to achieve those goals.

“They (government) have to extend it for longer as we still have the same problems,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “Our main goal would be to have a permanent moratorium.”

In 2019, Indonesian President Joko Widodo issued a separate permanent moratorium on new forest clearance for activities such as palm plantations or logging, covering about 66 million hectares (163 million acres) of primary forest and peatland.

Last year, tropical forest losses around the world equalled the size of the Netherlands, according to satellite monitoring service Global Forest Watch (GFW), despite improved protection in parts of Southeast Asia.

Conservationists blame production of commodities like palm oil - used in everything from margarine to soap and fuel - and minerals for much of the destruction of forests, as they are cleared for plantations, ranches, farms and mines.

Destroying rainforests has major implications for global goals to curb climate change, as trees absorb about a third of the planet-warming emissions produced worldwide, but release carbon back into the air when they rot or are burned.

“The palm oil moratorium was introduced in response to the catastrophic forest fires that occurred in Indonesia’s forests and peatlands in 2015,” said Gemma Tillack, forest policy director at U.S.-based nonprofit Rainforest Action Network.

“Permanent moratoria would be welcomed and if enforced would make a massive contribution to the Indonesian government’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” she added.

Ahead of November’s COP26 UN climate talks, Indonesia last month submitted an updated national climate action plan. Government ministers said the country was optimistic of reaching a net-zero emissions goal by 2060 or sooner - at least a decade earlier than its previous 2070 target, President Joko Widodo noted in March.

To meet this pledge, limiting forest destruction and conversion of land will be key, said green groups.

“The (Paris) agreement recognised the important role that avoiding deforestation and forest degradation would play in limiting temperature rises to 1.5 degrees (Celsius),” said Tillack.

GFW’s 2020 deforestation data showed Indonesia’s primary forest loss decreased to just over 270,000 hectares - a fourth straight year of declines.

The downward trend has been due to a series of government policies, including the freeze on permits for oil palm plantations, said forestry experts.

“These (palm oil and forest) moratoria have contributed to reduced deforestation in Indonesia, both in terms of greenhouse gas emissions and forest converted and degraded,” said Johan Kieft, a green economy advisor for the UN Environment Programme.