Jakarta Globe, June 17, 2011
Jakarta. A freshly inked two-year forest moratorium was breached on its first day as a plantation company burned carbon-rich peatlands on Borneo island, an investigation by an environmental group said.
Indonesia revealed a long list of exemptions to its much-delayed two-year forest moratorium on logging that came into effect on May 20, in a concession to hard-lobbying plantation firms in Southeast Asia’s largest economy.
The London-based Environmental Investigation Agency and its Indonesian partner Telapak said they had documented peat forest in Central Kalimantan province’s moratorium zone being burned by Malaysian plantation group Kuala Lumpur Kepong Berhad (KLK) on May 20.
KLK officials were not immediately available for comment and company executives did not respond to queries e-mailed by Reuters.
The Forestry Ministry said it had not seen the environmental group’s report but forest and peatland burning was against the law and should be investigated.
The environmental group also criticized Norway, which promised $1 billion for Indonesia if it implemented the moratorium, for investing in KLK.
Reuters
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