Indonesia’s Moratorium On Deforestation Could Be Good For Business, Human Rights, and The Environment… or Not

It’s become clear this week — between Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s comments on tackling corruption and reducing negative environmental impacts of deforestation and Al Gore’s speech extolling the business case for rolling back deforestation and commending Indonesia’s emerging leadership on the issue — that industry elites with a vested interest in maintaining business as [...]

Continue reading...

Land Lost in Lies: Smallholder Schemes Gone Wrong

I’ve spent the past week visiting our partners in Indonesia and interviewing frontline communities directly impacted by the palm oil industry. The stories I’ve heard are haunting — tales of human rights abuses, negligent environmental destruction and the criminalization of Indigenous Peoples for trying to maintain some connection to their ancestral lands despite degradation caused by [...]

Continue reading...

RSPO Dispatch: Duta Palma destroys rainforests and lives

On the first day of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) Pak Jamaluddin was quiet. He said the air conditioning of Kuala Lumpor gave him the flu. He seemed lost among the groups of palm producers, with their Blackberries and dark suits. Exhausted from the canoe rides, bad roads, the concrete maze of Jakarta, [...]

Continue reading...

RSPO Dispatch: Tough times for climate and forests, but RSPO still intact

Contrary to a number of sensationalist media reports leading up to this year’s Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil, the RSPO is not breaking up. At the core of the controversy has been the effort to include a commitment by all members of the RSPO to reduce their Green House Gas (GHG) emissions. After two [...]

Continue reading...