Jakarta Globe, Bruce
Einhorn, Yoga Rusmana & Eko Listiyorini, May 31, 2013
 |
| An aerial picture taken on May 4, 2013, shows palm oil plantation in Indragiri Hulu, Riau. (EPA Photo) |
To
environmentalists, Indonesia is the home of developers who clear virgin rain
forests, destroy the habitat of orangutans, and contribute to global climate
change.
But on May
13, Indonesia extended a policy of keeping virgin rain forest off-limits to the
palm oil industry, a main driver of deforestation.
The first
moratorium, imposed in 2011, had some enforcement problems.
This time
the government seems to be taking a new approach to green issues, and activists
such as Glenn Hurowitz are unlikely fans.
“There are
now people at the highest levels of government who really believe the country
can develop and protect its natural resources at the same time,” says Hurowitz,
managing director of consultant Climate Advisers and senior fellow at the
Center for International Policy, a think tank.
The change,
he says, is “quite extraordinary.”
Indonesian
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono renewed the moratorium in part because of
multinationals that don’t want to be linked to deforestation in Indonesia, the
top producer of palm oil, which is used in cooking around the world.
Companies
such as Nestlé, Unilever, and Cargill have pledged to stop using palm oil from
trees planted on land that had been virgin rain forest. By 2015, even Girl
Scout Cookies will use only palm oil certified as sustainable.
The
moratorium, says Indonesian Palm Oil Board Chairman Derom Bangun, “is good for
improving our image.”
In
Indonesia, government departments often disagree about what constitutes virgin
forest and what areas stay open for developers.
“They each
have their own definitions, each have their maps, which don’t specifically
correlate to each other,” says Satya Tripathi, director of the UN’s Office for
REDD+ Coordination in Indonesia, an agency focused on deforestation,
conservation, and sustainable forest management.
The
government is creating a single map of forest areas to eliminate conflicting
accounts.
Indonesian
industry isn’t happy with the government’s ban. “We will lose the momentum,”
says Joko Supriyono, secretary general of the Indonesian Palm Oil Association.
Already,
plantation owners such as Malaysia’s Sime Darby are looking to less regulated
countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
Some
environmentalists aren’t totally satisfied either.
According
to Yuyun Indradi of Greenpeace Indonesia, banning new plantations on primary
rain forest isn’t enough, because planters can still clear secondary-growth
forest. A more comprehensive ban “is what’s really needed,” he says.
Bloomberg
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