By letting big onpalm oil, Indonesia is destroying the environment, condemning many endangered species to extinction and gambling with the future of generation to come, according to Greenpeace.
By Albertus Weldison Nonto

The "DARKER SIDE" OF THE PALM INDUSTRY has recently been is exposed in an report, How to Palm Oil is Cooking the Climate.
The environmental group Greenpeace says burning and massive land clearing carried int he palm oil industry makes Indonesia the world's third largest country in carbon dioxide emissions behind th US and China.
It says well-sustantiated figures suggest 1,8 billion tons of greenhouse gases are released by degradation and burning of Indonesia's peat lands each year - equal to 4% of the planet's total emissions.
Environmentalists are alarmed by Indonesia's plan to increase the size of palm oil plantation to 20 million hectares from the current figures of about 7,3 million hectares. This is equal in size to Great Britain, Holland and Switzerland lumped together.
Greenpeace also says unchecked palm oil expansion could eventually lead tot he extinction of endangered species like the sumateran tiger, the orang utan and hundreds of smaller birds, fish and animals found only in the Indonesian Rain Forest.
It argues that the growth of plantations on peat lands increases gas emissions (GHG) as peat soils dry out, oxidize and in some cases burn.
It estimates that 10 million of Indonesia's 22 million hectares of peat lands are now marked for destruction in the path of palm oil.

Rising Conflict
According to local independent environmental organization Sawit Watch, social conflict between people dependent on the rainforest for their survival and plantation owners is escalating. More than 500 cases of conflict have been reported and figures are rising dramatically as more forest is destroyed.
Some of the world's major businesses are driving forces behind plantation expansion in Indonesia, with demand increasing and rising prices for essential food products like cooking oil.
Global giants like Nestle, Unilever, Cargill and Proctor and Gambel are among the end users of palm oil. They have organized the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), an initiative chaired y Unilever.
These companies consume 40% of world CPO production. Unilever alone uses 1,2 million ton per year,most coming from Indonesia. This represents 3% of world CPO production.
Other multinationals, including : Gillete, Pringles, Philadelphia Cream, Cadbury and Burger King, are also complicit in the expansion of palm plantations in Indonesia.
In the past 50 years, 74 million hectares of forest have been destroyed, burned, degraded and pulped. A report by the United Nations on Environment Program last year says palm plantation expansion in Indonesia is among the major man-made causes of rainforest destruction in Indonesia.
Demand for palm oil is expected to double by the year 2030 and triple by 2050.

Sad record
Trading in Indonesian Palm Oil is dominated by big traders in Singapore. Cargil, a US company, is a major player along with the Indonesian- Malaysian alliance of ADM-Kuok-Wilmar-the world's biggest bio fuel producer. A Malaysian Government entity,Synergy Drive, also has major holdings in Indonesia.
Riau province in Sumatra is among the main locations for palm plantations in Indonesia = more than a quarter of the are under plantation is on peat land.
In figures released last year, 1,4 million hectare of land in Indonesia has been usurped by the palm industry . It is predicted that in the next decade half the province will covered with oil palm trees.

	Players	Company/Group	Land Banks (Hectares)	Planted Area (Hectares)	CPO Productions (in tones)	GlobeAsia ’07 Rich List
1.	Eka Tjipta Widjaja	GoldenAgri/SMART	1,300,000	359,732	1,967,092	#3 $3.1 Billion
2	Anthony Salim	Indofood Agri Resources	570,000	374,000	1,013,637	#4 $2.8 billion
3	Sukanto Tanoto	Asian Agri	515,000	170,000	710,000	#6 $1.3 billion
4	Martua Sitorus	Wilmar International	573,000			#12 $615 Million
5	Astra Agro Lestari	Astra International	500,000	238,000	920,000
6	Guthrie Bhd	Minamas Gemilang	288,000
7	Martias	Ciliandra Group	278,000	86,000	278,000
8	Aburizal Bakrie	Bakrie Sumatera Plantation	210,000	78,000	210,000	#8 $1.05 Billion
9	Teddy Rachmat and Benny Subianto	Tri Putra Agro Persada	200,000	120,000	220,000	#32 $320 Million
10	Liem Haryanto	Bumitama Gunajaya/Harita Group	200,000	50,000
11	Surya Darmadi	Duta Palma Group	200,000	54,000	190,000
12	Osbert Lyman	Lyman Agro	190,000	40,000		#23 $400 million
13	Putera Sampoerna	Sampoerna Agro	182,000	78,000	245,908	#5 $2.2 Billion
14	Gunawan Raya Family	Incasi Raya Group	174,000	36,000
15	Golden Hope (Malaysia)	Malaysia	170,000
16	Bachtiar Karim	Musim Mas	100,000	70,000	210,000	#51 $230 Million
17	Widarto and Santoso Winata	Tunas Baru Lampung	106,000	47,000		#101 $ 98 million
18	Susanto Lim	Sawitmas Group	105,000	47,000
19	Sipef Group	Belgian investment Group	52,000	30,000
20	Rowe Evans	Rowe evans	40,000	25,000