JAKARTA, July 29 (Reuters) - Greenpeace on Thursday issued fresh accusations that palm oil firms linked to Indonesian agribusiness giant Sinar Mas have bulldozed rainforest and destroyed endangered orangutan habitats in Kalimantan.
An aerial view shows a cleared forest area under development for palm oil plantations in Kapuas Hulu district, Indonesia's West Kalimantan province July 6, 2010. The photograph was taken as part of a media trip organised by conservationist group Greenpeace, which has campaigned against palm oil expansion in forested areas in Indonesia. Picture taken July 6, 2010. REUTERS/Crack PalinggiSinar Mas group's palm oil unit, PT SMART Tbk lost top customers Unilever and Nestle after earlier Greenpeace allegations of virgin forest destruction.
SMART has promised to stop clearing high conservation value forests, a technical forestry term meaning forests that shelter endangered species or provide valuable natural services such as trapping climate-warming greenhouse gases. SMART said it will publish an audit of its operations on August 10. SMART manages Indonesian palm oil firms, PT Agro Lestari Mandiri (ALM) and PT Bangun Nusa Mandiri (BNM). The parent company for SMART, ALM and BNM is Singapore-listed Golden Agri-Resources
Greenpeace said in a report released on Thursday that aerial photographs taken in July by their own photographers, as well as by a Reuters photographer, showed that ALM was still clearing carbon-rich peatland forests in Ketapang district, in Indonesia's West Kalimantan province.
"What we found was that, despite their commitment, high carbon destruction is still going on," said Greenpeace forest campaigner, Bustar Maitar.
"This is still happening, even while their auditor is writing the report."
Enormous amounts of greenhouse gases are emitted when peatland forests are cleared and drained. Their preservation is seen as crucial to preventing runaway climate change.
Greenpeace also published photographs which it said showed BNM clearing in an area in Ketapang that was identified by the United Nations Environment Program as habitat for highly endangered orangutans.
Fajar Reksoprodjo, a spokesman for SMART, told Reuters that all concessions it operated were granted by the government.
"We are working based upon what the government has allocated for us. Presumably the issuance for that is because it's not deemed by the government as high conservation value," he said.
He said that in the past, aerial photographs that appeared to show clearing in peatlands had been misinterpreted.
"What was thought by layman's or non-expert eyes was peat, turned out to be mineral soil. It has the same colouration."
SMART originally said it would release its audit in July but delayed it to the second week of August because it was not yet finished.
The auditors are paid by SMART and were selected in collaboration with Unilever, which chairs the Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), an industry body made up of producers, consumers and non-government organisations.
Agribusiness giant Cargill Inc has threatened to delist Sinar Mas as a supplier if the RSPO validates allegations of improper land conversion in earlier Greenpeace reports. (Editing by Sara Webb and Miral Fahmy)
Greenpeace makes fresh allegations against Indonesian firm
Stephen Coates (AFP) Google News 29 Jul 10;
JAKARTA — Greenpeace made fresh allegations Thursday that units of Indonesian paper and palm oil giant Sinar Mas are clearing high conservation-value forests including habitats of endangered orangutans.
Greenpeace Indonesia forest campaigner Bustar Maitar said new investigations showed Sinar Mas subsidiaries logging peat forests and orangutan habitats on Borneo island despite repeated promises to end such practices.
"Our photos provide fresh evidence of Sinar Mas's continued active clearance of remaining rainforests and deep peatlands," he told AFP as the environmental group released a report on the issue.
"Contrary to their claims of sustainability, land-clearing is still happening on the ground."
The allegations are the latest in a string of Greenpeace attacks on Sinar Mas, whose palm oil unit PT SMART has recently suffered the loss of major clients Unilever, Kraft and Nestle over environmental concerns.
"Sinar Mas is the leading palm oil producer in Indonesia. It is their duty to show the way and that's the reason why we have targeted them. We would be more than happy to stop this campaign," Maitar said.
In addition to sheltering critically endangered species like orangutans, high conservation-value forests are also rich stores of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.
Sinar Mas denies the Greenpeace allegations and SMART has promised to release an audit on August 10 to prove that its operations are sustainable.
Indonesia is considered the world's third-biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, mainly through deforestation, much of which is carried out illegally with the alleged connivance of officials and security forces.
The Greenpeace report published Thursday says Sinar Mas, which is controlled by the Widjaja family headed by company founder Eka Tjipta Widjaja, is planning to aggressively target sensitive forests in Papua province.
"Analysis by Greenpeace of areas targeted by Sinar Mas for oil palm development in Papua indicates that these areas contain 50 percent primary forest cover and significant areas of peatland," it said.
"Its future expansion into rainforest areas and peatlands will further contribute to habitat loss and climate change."
SMART President Director Daud Dharsono said the company was in fact helping to preserve forests and species such as orangutans.
"We are not responsible for clearing primary forests, which are the natural habitats for orangutans, and high conservation-value areas (HCV)," he said in a statement sent to AFP.
"On the contrary, all our concession areas do not contain primary forests and we conserve high conservation-value areas, creating sanctuaries that will continue to preserve biodiversity."
A company statement said that forested areas in Greenpeace photographs of SMART concession areas showed that the firm was conserving high-value areas on the degraded land it owned or managed.
"They are not remnants of primary forest caused by SMART?s palm oil operations. These are in fact preserved areas, as a result of our commitment to conserve HCV land," it said.
"SMART is a responsible company... We reiterate that as part of our sustainability commitments, SMART does not plant oil palm trees on peat land, primary forests nor convert land with HCV."
But Greenpeace's Maitar said Sinar Mas had been "caught red-handed", yet again.
"This is typical of a group that has an appalling record of environmental destruction," he said.
Greenpeace earlier this month accused foreign firms like Walmart, Carrefour and Tesco of contributing to forest destruction and species loss in Indonesia by buying from paper and palm oil giant Sinar Mas.
Greenpeace accuses Sinar Mas of breaking promises
Antara 29 Jul 10;
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - A new Greenpeace investigation into the operations of Sinar Mas reveals that the company is continuing to break its own environmental commitments on protecting forests and peatland.
"We`ve caught Sinar Mas red-handed destroying valuable rainforests, and breaching the limited promises it has made to clean up its act. This is typical of a group that has an appalling record of environmental destruction.
Sinar Mas has to be reigned in if there is to be a future for what`s left of Indonesia`s rainforests. Until this group changes course, other businesses should have nothing to do with Sinar Mas," said Bustar Maitar, Greenpeace forest campaigner on a press statement on the environmental NGO`s website, Thursday.
Publishing new photographic evidence, aerial monitoring and field analysis, Greenpeace International details how the Sinar Mas group continues to clear rainforest containing priceless biodiversity - such as orang-utan habitat - and carbon-rich peatlands, despite public promises it has made to clean up its act.
"The revelations also highlight Sinar Mas` ambitions to expand its pulp and palm oil empire into millions more hectares across Indonesia, including large tracts of rainforest and peatland in the province of Papua. These ambitions are outlined in confidential Sinar Mas documents obtained by Greenpeace," Greenpeace said.
Last week, the head of Sinar Mas` palm oil division confirmed the company`s intentions to expand its empire by an additional 1 million hectares.
Sinar Mas claims not to develop on peatland and to protect forests of `high conservation value`.
Earlier Greenpeace investigations repeatedly documented cases where Sinar Mas operations actively cleared rainforest and peatland areas, including tiger and orang-utan habitats.
Following the latest revelations Greenpeace is calling on Sinar Mas to come clean and make public its maps detailing all its landholdings, to enable analysis of which areas are critically important for biodiversity and climate protection, and what it is doing in those areas. (*)
Greenpeace Says Photos Show Palm Oil Destruction in Indonesia
Arti Ekawati & Reuters Jakarta Globe 20 Jul 10;
Indonesia. Greenpeace on Thursday went into attack mode again, saying it had photographic proof that palm oil firms linked to Indonesian agrobusiness giant Sinar Mas are bulldozing rainforests and destroying the habitat of endangered orangutans in Kalimantan.
Sinar Mas, which lost top customers like Unilever and Nestle after an earlier Greenpeace allegation that it was destroying virgin forests, countered that it was working on government-awarded concessions that were already degraded before it began .
After Greenpeace’s earlier report, Sinar Mas group’s palm oil unit, PT SMART, which manages producers PT Agro Lestari Mandiri and PT Bangun Nusa Mandiri, ordered an independent audit of their operations in Central and West Kalimantan, but announcement of the results has been postponed twice and is now scheduled for Aug. 10.
Greenpeace said aerial photographs taken in July by its own photographers, as well as Reuters, showed that Agro Lestari was still clearing carbon-rich peat land forests in the Ketapang district of West Kalimantan.
The group also published photographs allegedly showing Bangun Nusa clearing an area in Ketapang that had been identified by the United Nations Environment Program as a habitat for highly endangered orangutans.
“What we found was that, despite their commitment, high levels of carbon destruction are still going on,” Greenpeace forest campaigner Bustar Maitar said.
“This is still happening, even while their auditor is writing the report,” he added.
Fajar Reksoprodjo, a spokesman for SMART, told Reuters that because the concessions it operated were granted by the government, “presumably the issuance for that is because it’s not deemed by the government as high conservation value.”
He also said that in the past, Greenpeace had misinterpreted areas in aerial photographs.
“What was thought by layman’s or non-expert eyes as peat turned out to be mineral soil. They have the same coloration,” he said.
SMART acknowledged in a statement received by the Jakarta Globe that the pictures were taken in the company’s concession area in Kapuas Hulu, West Kalimantan, but stressed that they should not be interpreted as a deforestation of a primary forest.
“We are not responsible for the opening of primary forests, which are high conservation value areas and the main habitat for orangutans,” said Daud Dharsono, president director of Sinar Mas Agro Resources and Technology, a plantation unit.
“Instead, our concession area consists of nonprimary forest.”
The company also stated it was conserving some areas of degraded forest that still had high conservation value.
“The green areas shown in the photograph are proof that the company conserves these areas. [The areas are] not the remains of primary forest damaged by SMART’s activity,” Daud said.
Golden Agri unit says it only operates on degraded land
Angela Tan Business Times 30 Jul 10;
PT SMART Tbk (SMART), a subsidiary of Singapore-listed Golden Agri-Resources, yesterday reiterated that it is not responsible for clearing primary forests and orang-utan habitats in West Kalimantan, Indonesia, and that it only operates on degraded land based on government concessions.
'We are not responsible for clearing primary forests, which are the natural habitats for orang-utans, and High Conservation Value areas. On the contrary, all our concession areas do not contain primary forests and we conserve High Conservation Value areas, creating sanctuaries that will continue to preserve biodiversity,' said Daud Dharsono, president-director of SMART in a statement.
'In addition, in the case of degraded land, there could be areas with High Conservation Value...These areas are conserved.'
The assertions came amid renewed allegations by environmental group, Greenpeace, that units linked to Indonesian paper and palm oil giant, Sinar Mas, are logging in high conservation-value forests.
Greenpeace Indonesia forest campaigner Bustar Maitar said new investigations showed Sinar Mas subsidiaries logging peat forests and orang-utan habitats on Borneo island despite repeated promises to end such practices.
There are aerial photographs taken by journalists on a flight organised by Greenpeace around July 5 and 6, 2010 - some taken over SMART's concession areas in West Kalimantan.
In its latest statement, SMART claims the deforestation and the impact on orang-utans and other biodiversity would have already taken place well before SMART had management or control of degraded land.
The latest Greenpeace report published on Thursday said Sinar Mas, which is controlled by the Widjaja family headed by company founder Eka Tjipta Widjaja, is planning to aggressively target sensitive forests in Papua province.
'Analysis by Greenpeace of areas targeted by Sinar Mas for oil palm development in Papua indicates that these areas contain 50 per cent primary forest cover and significant areas of peatland,' it said.
Indonesia is considered the world's third-biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, mainly through deforestation, much of which is done illegally with the alleged connivance of officials and security forces.
SMART has promised to release an audit on Aug 10 to prove that its operations are sustainable. The Indonesian group is reeling from a public relations nightmare as corporates including retail giant Carrefour have suspended all orders of paper products from Sinar Mas' subsidiary, Asia Pulp & Paper, following reports from Greenpeace.
Golden Agri and Greenpeace battle rages on
Jessica Cheam Straits Times 30 Jul 10;
GREENPEACE opened a new attack on Golden Agri-Resources yesterday by releasing pictures that it claims show the palm oil producer clearing rain forests of high conservation value.
The aerial pictures are contained in a new report which alleges that the firm is still clearing carbon-rich peat land forests in Ketapang district, in Indonesia's West Kalimantan province.
The claims came on the day that Golden Agri unit PT Smart had meant to release an audit report on previous Greenpeace allegations about the firm's activities, but it postponed the release until Aug 10.
Greenpeace campaigner Bustar Maitar told The Straits Times: 'Delaying the report is not helping them. We have found that land clearing is still being continued, and this undermines the company's commitment to sustainability.'
PT Smart issued a statement yesterday saying that the aerial pictures are 'not the evidence of deforestation of primary forests, as referenced in media reports'. It said all concession areas owned or managed by PT Smart are located on degraded land, based on government concessions and in accordance with national laws and regulations. It added that deforestation would already have taken place well before Smart took control.
PT Smart president director Daud Dharsono also said yesterday: 'All our concession areas do not contain primary forests and we conserve high conservation value areas, creating sanctuaries that will continue to preserve biodiversity.'
The firm reiterated that it does not plant oil palm trees on peat land, and it aims to obtain a sustainability certification for all its palm oil operating units by 2015.
Firms such as Unilever and Nestle have dropped Smart as a supplier since Greenpeace began its series of accusations.