Indonesia is urged to ban new palm oil plantations permanently

Indonesia should make permanent its temporary ban on new permits for palm oil plantations to advance progress on tackling deforestation and meet its climate goals, environmentalists say. Home to the world’s third-largest tropical forests and also its biggest palm-oil producer, Indonesia introduced a three-year freeze on plantation permits that expires in September. The moratorium sought to prevent forest fires, deforestation and land conflicts, help meet emissions reduction targets set under the Paris climate accord, boost oversight and accelerate efforts to increase yields among smaller palm oil producers. Yuyun Harmono, climate justice campaign manager at the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (WALHI), said a three-year ban was not long enough to achieve those goals. “They (government) have to extend it for longer as we still have the same problems,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “Our main goal would be to have a permanent moratorium.” In 2019, Indonesian President ...