Valuable Peatlands Being Destroyed

By Barrie | April 7th, 2008 | No Comments

Peatland forests in Indonesia are continuously destructed by palm oil industry, although the government has stopped issuing new permits for new plantations at peatland ecosystem, a Greenpeace campaigner said. Hapsoro, Greenpeace campaigner for the Southeast Asia, said that the Greenpeace team has found a new plantation opened without permits on peatland forest in Indonesia’s Riau province at Sumatra Island.

“We investigated a Duta Palma palm oil concession and were shocked to find that the company is still clearing, draining and burning peatland. We call on the government to keep their Bali commitment to save the forests and tackle climate change by immediately putting in place measures to regulate the palm oil industry,” he told a joint press conference here on Monday.

The destruction of peatland forest has occurred in Sumatra, Sulawesi, Kalimantan Islands and Papua province, said Hapsoro.
Indonesian government has stopped issuance of permits for opening new plantation on peatland forest since Dec. 13 last year.

Political Adviser of the Greenpeace Southeast Asia Arief Wicaksono said that Indonesia is the third largest producer of emission gas, and about 85 percent of the emission produced by Indonesia was the result of forest destruction.

Palm oil plantations cover about 6 million hectares in Indonesia and 4 million hectares in Malaysia, making Indonesia the biggest producer of the commodity, according to the Indonesian Agriculture Ministry.

The ministry said that Indonesia would expand palm oil plantation area to around 8 million hectares by 2010.

Source: chinaview.net