2 New Tools Can Cut Deforestation And Support Sustainable Palm Oil In Indonesia

Business News/Analysis, Farming/Growing, Feedstock, Feedstocks, Field/Orchard/Plantation Crops/Residues, Indonesia, Infrastructure, International, Logistics, Malaysia, Marketing/Markets and Sales, Policy, R & D Focus, Sustainability

November 29, 2012

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by Craig Hanson (WRI Insights) At the 10th Annual Meeting of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), WRI launched two new online mapping applications designed to help the palm oil industry grow while avoiding deforestation. These free tools enable palm oil producers, buyers, investors, and government agencies to easily identify and evaluate locations in Indonesia where they can develop plantations on already-degraded land rather than on currently forested areas. By siting oil palm plantations on degraded or “low-carbon” lands, developers can avoid the need to clear remaining natural forests to meet the growing global demand for palm oil.

Introducing the “Forest Cover Analyzer” and “Suitability Mapper”

The first application, the Forest Cover Analyzer, allows users to assess forest cover, forest cover change, and legal status in Indonesian Borneo. For the first time, companies can conduct their own online assessments to identify risks to sustainable palm oil production in a particular area. For example, users can determine whether a specific tract is likely to contain high-conservation value forest, or if it would be difficult to develop the area according to RSPO principles and criteria. By providing transparent and objective data on forest cover change, the Analyzer creates an incentive to avoid forested areas when establishing plantations.
The second application, the Suitability Mapper, allows palm oil producers, investors, and government spatial planners to locate tracts of low-carbon “degraded lands” that are potentially suitable for sustainable oil palm production. By “degraded,” we mean land where the natural vegetation—typically forests—was cleared years ago and where the forests did not recover. “Degraded” in this sense does not mean “poor soil quality,” but rather that the area has low carbon stocks, little biodiversity, and is not currently under cultivation. Alang-alang grasslands are an example of such areas in Indonesia. READ MORE and MORE

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