UK firm plans to log habitat of critically endangered orangutan for palm oil production
mongabay.comJune 23, 2009
|
|
Jardine Matheson Holdings is the majority shareholder of Astra Agro Lestar, a palm oil company that plans to develop the peatland forests of Tripa in Aceh Province for oil palm plantations. Environmentalists say conversion of the forest would destroy a biologically rich ecosystem that serves as a buffer against natural disasters in a region that bore the brunt of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that killed more than 225,000 people. Draining of the carbon-dense peat soils would also accelerate climate change by releasing vast amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere.
  Images showing oil palm plantation concessions and forest cover change from 1990 to 2005 in Tripa. Courtesy of YEL/PanEco Foundation |
In a series of statements, members of the coalition blasted Jardine and its chairman Sir Henry Keswick, who was knighted this month in the Queen’s birthday honors list.
"It's scandalous that a British company is bankrolling the destruction of this vital part of Indonesian rainforest," said Greenpeace forest campaigner James Turner. "If the executives at Jardines don't stop this they will be rightly accused of speeding up climate change, destroying a vital tsunami buffer zone and driving the Sumatran orangutan to the brink of extinction."
"It is frankly shocking that the Chairman of Jardine Matheson has been knighted for services to British business interests overseas, while his company is actively contributing to the demise of the critically endangered Sumatran orangutan," said Helen Buckland, UK Director, Sumatran Orangutan Society (SOS). "British businesses must be held accountable for their part in the destruction of this globally important area of forest."
 Sumatran orangutan in the Leuser ecosystem in North Sumatra. Photo taken by Rhett A. Butler in May 2009. |
Orangutan refuge
Twenty years ago Tripa was home to around 1,500 orangutans but hunting and habitat destruction have reduced the population to around 280, or about 4 percent of the 6,600 Sumatran orangutans that remain in the wild.
Trip is one of Sumatra's few remnant lowland forests. Since 1975, the extent of primary forest cover in Sumatra has decreased by more than 90 percent due to logging, agricultural expansion, and plantation forestry — especially rubber and oil palm.
"This case in unfortunately just one example," said Alex Kaat from Wetlands International. "Throughout Indonesia and Malaysia, we see that the last remaining peatswamp forests are cleared for palm oil production to meet the growing demands for vegetable oils and biofuels."
 Deforestation in another part of the Leuser ecosystem, on the border of Gunung Leuser National Park. A field assessment in November 2007 by YEL/PanEco Foundation, the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) and UNSYIAH (University of Syiah Kuala, Banda Aceh), found total above ground carbon stock in the remaining 31,410 hectares (77,550 acres) of forest in Tripa to be around 4 million tons. Below ground carbon stocks were estimated to be at least five times that figure. |
