Rob Cramb, The University of Queensland and John McCarthy, Australian National University
Over the past few years many companies have committed to sustainable palm oil. But that is threatened by a growing alliance between industry and government.
An industrial pulp-wood plantation in Sumatra, Indonesia.
William Laurance
While Indonesia has taken steps to address the worst forest fires in living memory, a new palm oil alliance with Malaysia threatens to take a giant leap back.
Why do forests fires rage every year in Indonesia? Some people benefit from the business of fire, enjoying profits and economic rents at the expense of environmental quality.
EPA/Adi Weda
Scientists and policymakers - aware of the extreme dry season of El Nino - have warned of fires in Indonesia months in advance. Why then, do fires continue to blaze and what is being done about it?
A relatively new commercial oil palm plantation on peatland in central Sarawak, Borneo.
Denis Murphy
How do the products we buy affect the world’s rainforests? In the lead up to the Asia-Pacific Rainforest Summit held in Sydney this week, The Conversation is running a series on rainforest commodities…
Where the rainforest meets the plantation: there are probably a lot more insects.
Ryan Woo for Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR)
Palm oil plantations have an overall negative impact on biodiversity, according to research released this week. The study, published in Nature Communications, found palm oil plantations are home to fewer…
Significantly diminished water quality now joins the host of other risks associated with palm oil plantations. Researchers…
Changing corporate attitudes are giving orangutans and other endangered species in Indonesia’s rainforests more hope of survival.
Flickr/Austronesian Expeditions
Indonesia is the world’s biggest destroyer of forests and four multinational corporations — APP, APRIL, Wilmar and Golden Agri Resources — have been responsible for much of it. Until recently these mega-corporations…
Sustainable palm oil production should have local consent: often, it doesn’t.
Rainforest Action Network
Businesses, government and civil society met this month in Medan, Indonesia, for the 11th annual Roundtable meeting on sustainable palm oil. While orangutan conservation organisations dominated conversations…
Once majestic low-lying rainforests, Indonesia’s peatlands now emit around 1 billion tonnes of CO2 a year.
H Dragon/flickr
One of the world’s major terrestrial carbon pools is rapidly deteriorating as large parts of Indonesia’s peatlands are deforested and converted to oil palm and paper plantations. No longer a carbon sink…
Who’s hands is palm oil really in?
World Bank Photo Collection
What is the value of sustainable palm oil? For some, it is the conservation of tropical forests and wildlife in highly biodiverse regions. For others, it is US$3. That’s the latest price of certificates…
Greg Hunt will face hurdles in his plan to stop rainforest logging, but there is much he could do now.
Rainforest Action Network
Opposition environment spokesman Greg Hunt’s ambition to broker a new global rainforest recovery plan reopens an important conversation about Australia’s role in tackling tropical deforestation. And it…
Knocking down forests and planting palm oil makes sense in Asia. Providing alternative income sources for villagers could make it less attractive.
Simon J. Rowntree
Reducing poverty in developing countries through economic development is often contrary to addressing climate change. In countries like Indonesia, many of the strongest drivers of the economy – palm oil…
Primary forest is best for biodiversity, but we should also look at second-best.
cknara/Flickr
We live in an age of vanishing rainforests. Half of the world’s tropical forests have disappeared since World War II and roughly another 10 million hectares are being felled each year — the equivalent…
Environmental activists have targeted palm oil – an industry crucial to Indonesia’s development.
AAP
In 1990 there were about 400 international environmental groups. Today, this number is more like 1.4 million. So why is the world apparently in a worse state now? Have environmental groups paid too much…
Informative labelling can put us on the road to ethical choices.
AAP
The most important factor determining whether consumers avoid purchasing a product containing palm oil is not how they feel about orangutans, the environment, or anything else for that matter. It’s whether…
Honorary Fellow, Law School; Associate of the Sydney Democracy Network of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Sydney University, The University of Western Australia