indonesia

FAQ: Palm oil, forests and climate change

Last edited 8 November 2007 at 10:44am

Forested peatlands cleared for oil palm plantations in Riau, Indonesia

Forested peatlands cleared for oil palm plantations in Riau, Indonesia © Greenpeace/Oka Budhi

Why is palm oil a problem?

The global palm oil industry is expanding rapidly: it's used in an increasing number of food and cosmetic products, while demands for its use in biofuels like biodiesel are set to soar in the near future. Tropical rainforests and peatlands, in South East Asia are being destroyed to make way for oil palm plantations. Not only is this a disaster for biodiversity and local communities, it will also release vast amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, accelerating climate change.

Article tagged as: agriculture, biodiesel, biofuels, climate change, forests, indonesia, palm oil, south east asia

Palm oil

Last edited 5 November 2013 at 1:37pm

Demand for palm oil is growing - and fast. At the moment, most of it ends up in hundreds of food products - from margarine and chocolate to cream cheese and oven chips - although it's also used in cosmetics and increasingly, for use in biodiesel. But the cost to the environment and the global climate is devastating - to feed this demand, tropical rainforests and peatlands in South East Asia are being torn up to provide land for oil palm plantations.

Oil palm fruit

Fruit from the oil palm © Greenpeace/Solness

Article tagged as: biodiesel, biofuels, climate change, deforestation, forests, indonesia, palm oil, peatlands

Cooking the Climate

Last edited 8 November 2007 at 9:42am
Publication date: 
8 November, 2007
Every year, 1.8 billion tonnes (Gt) of climate changing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are released by the degradation and burning of Indonesia’s peatlands – 4% of global GHG emissions from less than 0.1% of the land on earth. This report shows how, through growing demand for palm oil, the world’s largest food, cosmetic and biofuel industries are driving the wholesale destruction of peatlands and rainforests. These companies include Unilever, Nestlé and Procter & Gamble, who between them account for a significant volume of global palm oil use, mainly from Indonesia and Malaysia.
Download the report:
Article tagged as: biodiesel, biofuels, climate change, deforestation, forests, indonesia, palm oil, peatlands, reports

Household brands accused of "cooking the climate" as British government prepares for climate summit

Last edited 8 November 2007 at 9:36am
8 November, 2007

KitKat, Pringles and Flora all implicated; palm oil industry "out of control"

A month before a major UN climate summit in Bali, new research reveals how a handful of the UK's best known brands are complicit in the destruction of Indonesia's peat swamp forests. These peatlands now account for a massive 4% of the world's total annual greenhouse gas emissions. (1)

Article tagged as: climate change, forests, indonesia, nestle, palm oil, press releases, proctor & gamble

SOS Sumatra: saving the swamp forest from palm oil plantations

Posted by bex — 30 October 2007 at 1:25pm - Comments

Last week, Jamie wrote about our Forest Defenders Camp in Sumatra, Indonesia: the frontline of where peatland forest is being cleared for palm oil plantations.

Well, this week our volunteers out there are busy trying to stop the destruction of an area of swamp forest. Working with local communities, they're building dams across the canals that are used in logging and draining peatland.

From our international site:


Thick layers of peat underlie most of Indonesia's swamp forest. Over time, the peat layer has locked up millions of tonnes of carbon. Once forests are cleared, peat swamps are drained and decompose to release the stored carbon as carbon dioxide. Forests are often also burned, prior to the planting of palm oil saplings, further compounding the climate problem.

Article tagged as: climate change, forest defenders camp, forests, indonesia, palm oil, sumatra, videos

Government introduces UK biofuel obligations without proper safeguards

Last edited 24 October 2007 at 6:11pm -
24 October, 2007

Petrol and diesel industry may be contributing to rainforest destruction

Responding to the introduction of the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) last night, Greenpeace forest campaigner Belinda Fletcher said:

Article tagged as: biofuels, climate change, deforestation, forests, indonesia, palm oil, politics, press releases

Indonesia gets its own climate change camp

Posted by jamie — 24 October 2007 at 1:42pm - Comments

The Forest Defenders Camp in Sumatra, Indonesia

Climate change and deforestation are inextricably linked. Forest destruction contributes around one-fifth of all man-made greenhouse gas emissions, more than the entire global transport sector, and the problem is so severe that Indonesia and Brazil are ranked third and fourth respectively in the list of top emitting countries, mainly because of deforestation.

It's against this background that our latest Forest Defenders Camp opened a couple of weeks ago on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, located on the frontline where the peatland forest is being cleared for palm oil plantations. Palm oil is used in hundreds of food and cosmetic products, as well as biofuels.

Article tagged as: climate change, deforestation, forest defenders camp, forests, indonesia, palm oil, sumatra

The Paradise Forests of South East Asia

Last edited 2 August 2007 at 11:08am

A traditional landowner from Papua New Guinea

Stretching right across South East Asia, from Sumatra and Borneo to New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, the Paradise Forests form a wonderfully diverse region.

Article tagged as: agriculture, biofuels, china, deforestation, forests, illegal timber, indonesia, palm oil

Behind the lens in the Himalayas and other stories

Posted by bex — 5 June 2007 at 12:41pm - Comments

We regularly put photos of Greenpeace events here in the UK on Flickr, but sometimes we neglect to share pics from our 30 other offices around the world. And, what with the G8 coming up, there's been quite a lot going on in Greenpeace world over the past few days. Here's a selection of our favourite pics:

 

Article tagged as: czech republic, direct actions, finland, germany, himalayas, images, indonesia, multimedia

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