Recent News

25 November 2010
A $1 billion dollar deal with Norway to save Indonesia's forests and cut planet-warming carbon emissions will trigger a much-needed shake up of Indonesia's notorious bureaucracy, a top official said.

24 November 2010
Vague legal definitions may allow Indonesia to class forests as 'degraded' and 'rehabilitate' the land with palm trees and biofuel crops.

22 November 2010
A manager with one of Australia's most famous food companies predicts the food industry will phase out palm oil, as the building industry did asbestos.

9 November 2010
The Netherlands has committed to only using palm oil certified under the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) by 2015, providing a huge boost for the certification standard which aims to improve the social and environmental performance of the world's most productive oil crop.

1 November 2010
Engaging businesses instead of being confrontational could help activists' cause.

October 22nd 2010

The Indonesian government is imposing a moratorium on forest clearing in return for $1 billion grant from Norway to fund projects to curtail deforestation and land degradation. Environmental groups and some businesses welcome the freeze.

October 22, 2010

Illegal forest clearing fires in Indonesia's Sumatra Island are sending haze across the Malacca Strait to neighbouring Malaysia and Singapore, causing the worst air pollution since 2006, officials say.

18 October 2010
International environmental group Greenpeace is denying accusations that it is waging a foreign-funded campaign aimed at sabotaging the palm oil industry in Indonesia.

18 October 2010
Ten civil-society groups, including Greenpeace, have called on the government to get serious about implementing a moratorium on issuing new logging concessions in critical areas.

5 October 2010
Sinar Mas pulp and paper firm Asia Pulp and Paper, accused by green groups of large-scale deforestation, has signed a deal to protect a large area of forest in return for carbon offset revenue.

1 October 2010
There’s an easy charm to Banda Aceh that belies its tumultuous history—and a ground-breaking climate change experiment.

28 September 2010
Selectively logged forests and timber plantations can serve as habitat for orangutans, suggesting that populations of the endangered ape may be more resilient than previously believed, reports research published in the journal PlosONE.

25 September 2010
An industry body for sustainable palm oil has made its first public censure of a member, saying Indonesia’s Sinar Mas Agro Resources & Technology breached its principles and may face sanctions.

20 September 2010
The billions of dollars that Indonesia stands to earn every year in climate-change deals could be at risk if it fails to stamp out corruption in its forestry sector, antigraft authorities warn.

28 August 2010
Indonesian environmental activists have called on Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard to honor an election promise to ban the import of illegal timber.

20 August 2010
JAKARTA - Indonesia may propose palm oil plantations be eligible to earn carbon credits under a U.N.-backed scheme aimed at preserving forests, a forestry ministry official said on Monday.

12 August 2010
The government plans to set aside 30 million hectares of protected forests for habitats for endangered species in order to prevent their extinction.

15 July 2010
Why should we protect the orangutan? It is a frequently asked question when lay-people, including businesspeople, discuss the need to protect orangutans, Asia's only great ape, which is greatly endangered.

21 June 2010
Some New Zealand food companies are being slippery about whether they use palm oil, according to a Green Party survey.