Publication - 19 November, 2015
Indonesia’s fire crisis, the result of decades of wholesale forest and peatland destruction, has put Indonesia’s plantation industries in the global spotlight. Global consumer companies and traders must face up to their role in fuelling this disaster. Existing ‘No Deforestation’ policies and Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) membership are not enough.
President Joko Widodo has taken the long overdue political step of issuing an official instruction ordering an end to further development on peat – a critical first move toward reversing this destructive commodity-driven legacy. His vice president, Jusuf Kalla, has called for the full restoration of forests and peatlands by 2020. His Minister for Environment and Forestry has said that her office is in the process of drawing up binding regulations to give legal force to the policy.
The plantation sector – and the global market it supplies – must act quickly and decisively to support the president's reforms and agree industry-wide action to reverse deforestation and improve transparency and accountability within the forestry sector.
Under Fire