ith the demand landscape for Indonesian palm oil set for a seismic shift from export to domestic consumption, the result of a huge new government intervention, experts are wondering how…
et other Wilmar suppliers are alleged to have cleared rainforest in violation of the palm oil giant’s sustainability policy, but this time the allegations hit closer to home. A new…
An Indonesian organization dedicated to conserving one of the world’s richest expanses of tropical rainforest is pushing for the rezoning of a crucial wildlife corridor where human encroachment and the…
Part four in a five-part series on the links between business practices and deforestation in palm oil industry. Parts one, two and three. key component of the palm oil industry that is…
A drainage canal extends into a peatland forest in Indonesia's Central Kalimantan province. Photo: Rhett A. Butler The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is drastically undercounting emissions from…
A fire burns on an oil palm plantation in Borneo. Photo: Rhett A. Butler With dry season in full swing, Indonesia's new environment and forestry minister flew in a helicopter…
A sign in the Indonesian village of Wambi in Papua province's Merauke district says locals reject the presence of any company. Merauke is the site of a planned food and…
Deforestation for oil palm in Indonesia's Riau province. Photo: Rhett A. Butler Palm oil giant First Resources has committed to eliminate deforestation and rights abuses from its supply chain, making…
An oil palm development bordering Indonesia's Mount Leuser National Park. Photo: Rhett A. Butler A supplier of palm oil giants Wilmar and Musim Mas has continued to bulldoze valuable forest…
Residents of Paser, a district in Indonesia's East Kalimantan province, protest against a coal mining company in February. Photo courtesy of the Indigenous People's Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN) A…
by 26 June 2015
A forest is cleared for oil palm in Bulohseuma in Indonesia's Aceh province. Photo: Chik Rini Encroachers have been clearing forest at three locations in Aceh's biggest peat swamp since…
Less than three weeks after APRIL unveiled a sustainability policy that is supposed to protect natural forests, an environmental group is alleging that one of the Indonesian forestry giant's subsidiaries…
Global Forest Watch image showing the region in West Papua where the clearing took place Agribusiness giants Cargill and Golden Agri-Resources (GAR) are pledging to investigate a palm oil supplier…
by 15 June 2015
As the rush for land in Southeast Asia continues at breakneck speed, often bringing with it social and environmental destruction, a new study by a major environmental research group explores…
Protesters donned elephant costumes last month for a demonstration outside the Mandarin Oriental's London branch after the launch of the She's Not a Fan campaign targeting the luxury hotel chain's…
A logged-out forest in Indonesia's Central Kalimantan province. Photo: Rhett A. Butler The reputation of oil palm business group Sawit Sumbermas Sarana (SSS), a holding of one of Indonesia's richest…
An oil palm plantation near Tangkahan village in Indonesia's North Sumatra province. Photo: Quino Alonso The landscape during the five-hour ride from Medan, the capital of Indonesia's North Sumatra province,…
Motive not yet clear in nightclub stabbing of Indonesian environmental campaigner Slain activist Jopi Peranginangin posted this photo to his Facebook page in April. (The children are not his.) An…
Peatland cleared for palm oil outside Palangkaraya in Indonesia's Central Kalimantan province. Photo: Rhett Butler The charity that Indonesia's Golden Agri-Resources has enlisted to devise and implement its zero-deforestation and…
Forest clearing for oil palm in Sumatra. Photo: Rhett Butler The Mandarin Oriental hotel chain has landed in environmentalists' crosshairs for the practices of its sister company Astra Agro Lestari,…
A Sumatran elephant of the sort that lives in the Leuser Ecosystem. Photo: Rhett A. Butler A new report provides evidence that a supplier of palm oil giants Wilmar and…
Forest cleared for oil palm in West Kalimantan. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) has prohibited Golden Agri-Resources (GAR), one of its most prominent…
