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 is already breaching the commitment. But APRIL refuted the claim and says it continues to stand by the policy.
CONTINUE READINGBLD Plantation Bhd, a Malaysian palm oil company, plans to clear some 14,000 hectares of peatlands in Sarawak
CONTINUE READINGHumans are wiping species off the planet at a rate at least 100 times faster than historical levels, providing further evidence that we’re in the midst of a sixth great extinction, concludes a new study based on “extremely conservative” assumptions on past and current extinction rates.
CONTINUE READINGShoppers may be willing to pay a 15 to 56 percent premium for palm oil produced without the destruction endangered species’ habitat, asserts a study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
CONTINUE READINGBiologists and conservationists have studied the effects of habitat degradation on individual species, but have rarely investigated how logging and conversion of rainforests to oil palm agriculture change interspecies relationships. A study of a toad and its ant prey found that while the toad dwindled in disturbed habitats, a shortage of food was not the reason.
CONTINUE READINGAs the rush for land in Southeast Asia continues at breakneck speed, a new study by a major environmental research group explores how well investors really know where their money is going.
CONTINUE READINGWeak spatial planning and law enforcement, land tenure problems and a lack of transparency in licensing are some of the issues highlighted in an annual report on forest governance the Indonesian Environment and Forestry Ministry presented to the president last week.
CONTINUE READINGPalm oil giant Astra Agro Lestari has announced an immediate moratorium on land clearing, less than a month after the launch of an environmental campaign targeting one of its sister companies, the Mandarin Oriental hotel chain.
CONTINUE READINGThe reputation of oil palm business group Sawit Sumbermas Sarana (SSS), a holding of one of Indonesia’s richest men, has in recent days taken hits on multiple fronts, with a pair of NGOs separately accusing the firm of violating various sustainability commitments it is party to. The criticism highlights holes in both the Indonesia Palm […]
CONTINUE READINGFor years scientists have believed that orangutans are primarily arboreal. Indeed, most photographs and videos of orangutans depict them up in the trees. But a recent study published in the International Journal of Conservation, known as Oryx, challenges that thinking with photographic evidence that orangutans spend a lot more time on the ground than previously […]
CONTINUE READING