In the past month, there have been two significant developments in Indonesia’s palm oil sector: 1) the increased allocation for the country’s biodiesel program; and 2) multiple plantation companies — including oil palm plantation companies, together with industrial tree plantations and mining companies — have had their licenses revoked as a result of their concessions …
In the light of environmental and social sustainability concerns in relation to palm oil from Southeast Asia, several Latin American countries see an opportunity to open export markets as they present palm oil from the region as a more sustainable option. However, social and environmental sustainability concerns are also prominent in the Latin American sector …
Oil palm growers in Brazil have argued that palm oil production is a “green solution” to safeguard the Amazon as a result of planting on areas already degraded and cleared only before 2008. While palm oil production in the Brazilian Amazon has relatively lower environmental impacts than soy and beef, this paper shows how also …
In the aftermath of the COP26 summit in Glasgow in November, energy markets will become even further focused on substitutes for fossil fuels. There will be growing attention to solar and wind power, batteries, electric vehicles, as well as replacing and/or mixing fossil fuels with biofuels. The use of palm oil as biofuel feedstock in …
Just two weeks after a watershed announcement by more than 100 countries at COP26 on eliminating deforestation, the EU released a draft law on November 17 that would require companies to show that their products are not tied to forest clearing. Essentially, the legislation would ban commodities that are linked to deforestation, whether legal or …
Indonesia’s multi-businesses company group, Astra International, is reportedly expanding its gold mine in North Sumatra. This mine is operated by Astra International’s subsidiary PT Agincourt Resources and is in the habitat of the Critically Endangered Tapanuli orangutan (Pongo tapanuliensis). The expansion puts the approximately 800 orangutans in the region at greater risk and raises questions …
Commitments coming out of COP26 could represent a structural shift in efforts to conserve forests and tackle commodity-driven deforestation. The announcement that more than 100 countries, including those with vast amounts of tropical forests such as Brazil and Indonesia, pledged to eliminate deforestation by 2030 is a crucial breakthrough. Fossil fuels typically get most of …
Jhonlin Group, one of the largest deforesters for oil palm plantation development in Indonesia in the last few years, has reportedly completed the construction of a new biodiesel plant, PT Jhonlin Agro Raya (PT JAR), in Tanah Bambu district, South Kalimantan. The plant, which will mainly serve Indonesia’s domestic biofuel sector, can process 60 metric …
In the fourth quarter of 2020, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), a federal law enforcement agency, issued Withhold Release Orders (WRO) on two Malaysian palm oil companies – Sime Darby Plantations and Felda Global Ventures (FGV). These actions banned palm oil from the two companies from entering the United States. Since then, both …
A new report by WWF sheds light on the low uptake of Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certified palm oil in Asian markets, predominantly in the east, south, and southeast regions. The report identifies that the ongoing discussion on certified palm oil is still driven by Western markets. Only 3-4 percent of the total …
