2011 was the International Year of Forests, with the theme ‘Forests for People’. I think more and more people are coming to understand the role that forests play in the health of our planet, but I am not convinced that the threats are abating yet.
At the beginning of 2011, we were supposed to see the $1 billion deforestation moratorium deal between the Norwegian and Indonesian governments come into effect. 12 months later, there is still confusion surrounding which forests are available to be turned into oil palm or pulp and paper plantations, and illegal deforestation continues apace.
There is little confidence in the Indonesian Government’s ability to enforce the moratorium – recently the Governor of Aceh province in Sumatra was accused of granting permission for a palm oil company to convert 1,600 hectares of the Tripa peat swamp forests, which are also protected under several other national laws and regulations.
Deforestation Diesel
Palm oil has earned the title of “deforestation diesel” with good reason: in Southeast Asia, oil palm development has led to the conversion of huge tracts of lowland forests, and the primary driver for the expansion of the palm oil industry is the huge, and growing, global demand for this cheap vegetable oil. Indonesia and Malaysia produce the vast majority of the world’s palm oil, and deforestation in both countries is linked to the destruction of peatlands and the emissions of vast quantities of carbon.
In February 2008, Science magazine reported that using palm oil grown in Indonesia as a biofuel is up to 420 times as damaging to the climate as the fossil fuels it replaces. A fundamental prerequisite of biofuels being classed as “sustainable” is that they lead to a greenhouse gas emissions saving. However, the carbon equation doesn’t quite add up.
Soils and plant biomass are the largest stores of terrestrial carbon. When forests and peatlands are converted to biofuel production, vast quantities of CO2 are released. When a hectare of primary rainforest is cleared and replaced with oil palms, this releases around 65 times as much carbon into the atmosphere as can be saved annually by using the palm oil as a biofuel. Carbon emissions from peat fires in Indonesia, linked to oil palm plantation expansion, have on several occasions been higher than the UK’s entire annual CO2 emissions.
Public Consultation
And yet, in the UK, our fuel bills actually subsidise the burning of biofuels such as palm oil for heat and power. The government is undertaking a public consultation on this very issue, until 12th January. We are urging people to contact their MP to call for an end to these subsidies (for details, go to orangutans-sos.org).
UK and EU renewable energy targets are sending strong signals to industrial scale agriculture companies that we regard biofuels as part of the solution to our energy needs – a dangerous driver for the expansion of biofuel plantations. And as food production is displaced to grow fuel crops, demand for biofuels also causes indirect land use change as more and more forested land is opened to grow food.
Fundamentally, increased demand for palm oil to supply our energy needs here in the UK will drive an increase in the area under production in Indonesia, and will push development into high conservation value forests. Burning palm oil for energy is a potentially massive new demand, and will lead to new plantations and indirect land use change as the industry expands to capitalise on the growing market.
Threat to the Orangutan
Promoting the industrial scale use of palm oil for energy is just another nail in the coffin for the forests of the world, and the countless species, including the orangutan, which depend on them for their survival.
There is complete consensus amongst conservation experts that the single greatest threat to the continued survival of the orangutan in the wild is the conversion of high conservation value forests to oil palm plantations in Indonesia and Malaysia. On Sumatra, there is more than 4 times as much land covered with oil palms as there is orangutan habitat left standing. Even national parks are not safe from development. One of our flagship projects in Sumatra involves removing oil palms that have been illegally planted inside the Gunung Leuser National Park, the last stronghold for the Sumatran orangutan, and restoring the rainforest.
We have removed over 6,000 oil palms, and have been working with the community who live adjacent to this area of the park to plant hundreds of thousands of indigenous tree seedlings. They suffered severe water shortages when the palm oil company began operating in the park – oil palms are very ‘thirsty’ trees, and absorbed the groundwater for miles around the plantation. The local people were unable to dig deep enough wells to find water, and their crops were failing.
Forest Restoration
The community have established a group, calling themselves ‘Protectors of Leuser’, who are responsible for managing the tree nurseries, planting seedlings and maintaining and patrolling the restoration site. One local farmer, Sucarman, has said: “The forest has been cleared in every direction. We are coming to understand the consequences of forest destruction. We must respect and preserve nature. We want to recreate the lost habitat.”
We’re seeing some exciting results – some trees are now more than four metres tall, wildlife is returning to restored forest areas, including orangutans, and camera traps have captured fantastic images, including Sumatran elephants, pig-tailed and long-tailed macaques, leopard cats, wild boar and porcupines.
We have established a network of seven villages next to the Leuser forests, where the communities are developing conservation action plans. Our team is providing specialist training in projects such as diversified organic farming, ecotourism, biogas energy development, fish farming, tree nursery management and forest restoration. One thing all these activities have in common is that they support the protection of forests and biodiversity, as well as the communities’ livelihoods. Local support is an absolutely vital aspect of any conservation effort. Our vision is to equip communities with the tools and motivation needed for species and habitat protection, empowering the people of Sumatra to become guardians of their forests.
Alternatives to Deforestation
Research has revealed that more than 80% of agricultural expansion in the tropics between 1980 and 2000 came at the expense of forests. But there are alternatives to deforestation. While precious ecosystems are being devastated, millions of hectares of degraded land lie idle, available for cultivation. It has been estimated that the amount of land growing oil palms in Indonesia could quadruple without impacting any more forests, enabling the industry to grow whilst drastically reducing its environmental footprint.
Nobody would disagree that a major increase in renewable energy is essential. However, the use of biofuels for transport or for heat and power generation must not be promoted where their production is linked to deforestation, peat drainage, biodiversity loss, pollution or human rights abuses. The key is to use existing agricultural land more efficiently, and for better land-use planning, which must of course also ensure that the rights of indigenous people are upheld.
It’s reassuring that so much good work is being done to put a value on the ecosystem services provided by forests. I strongly urge readers to take a look at an excellent report released recently by the United Nations Environment Programme, entitled ‘Orangutans and the Economics of Sustainable Forest Management in Sumatra’ (available to download from www. grida.no). It provides a roadmap for recognising and protecting the extraordinary value of forest ecosystems. If managed properly, the value of ecosystem services provided by intact forests can far exceed the short-term revenue generated by converting the land to agriculture and other uses. If the report’s recommendations were to become policy in Indonesia, there could indeed be a brighter future for orangutans and the myriad species which share their forests.
By Helen Buckland, UK Director, Sumatran Orangutan Society (orangutans-sos.org)