Forest fires are burning on the Indonesian island of Sumatra and in parts of Indonesian Borneo, causing untold damage to an already fragile environment and wreaking havoc with people’s health. There are […]
Palm oil company director sentenced to jail for illegal forest clearance in Indonesia
Tripa burning in 2012; photo by Carlos Quiles. The director of the Indonesian palm oil company PT Kallista Alam, Subianto Rusyid, has been found guilty of illegally clearing peat forest in Aceh, […]
Environmentalists urge Indonesian minister to halt new spatial plan
Leuser Ecosystem: Photo by Paul Hilton Environmental activists are calling on the Indonesian Home Affairs Minister to halt plans to open up large areas of protected forests in Sumatra for road building, […]
Palm oil company fined millions of dollars for destroying Sumatran forest
Tripa burning in 2012; photo by Carlos Quiles. An Indonesian court has found the palm oil company PT Kallista Alam guilty of illegally burning large swathes of the Tripa peat forest, which […]
Campaigners want world heritage protection for Sumatran forest
(Photo by Paul Hilton.) An international campaign is underway to prevent further destruction of the Leuser Ecosystem in Aceh, northern Sumatra. Environmentalists are appealing for the ecosystem to be declared a UNESCO […]
Palm oil drives deforestation in Indonesia
The palm oil sector was the single largest driver of deforestation in Indonesia between 2009 and 2011, accounting for about a quarter of the country’s forest loss, Greenpeace International has revealed in […]
Indonesia’s slash-and-burn haze spreads again
The slash-and-burn haze that blanketed areas of Sumatra and also shrouded Singapore and western Malaysia last month is spreading again. Singapore is being spared for the moment, but, in Malaysia, areas of […]
New call from Greenpeace for action on fires
Greenpeace International today released new photographic and satellite evidence of peatland fires in and around the palm oil concession areas of Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) members operating in the Indonesian […]
Smog from Sumatra fires spreads to Thailand
The haze from slash-and-burn fires on the Indonesian island of Sumatra has now spread to southern Thailand. Several districts in Narathiwat, Songkhla and Satun provinces were blanketed in smog this morning (Tuesday). […]
Greenpeace tells plantation companies to accept responsibility for fires in Sumatra
As fires rage on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, and the resulting haze continues to blanket large areas of Malaysia, Greenpeace International has called on palm oil and pulp and paper companies […]
Slash-and-burn fires cause pollution haze
Western Malaysia is shrouded in a dangerous haze caused by illegal slash-and-burn fires on timber and oil palm plantations in Sumatra, Indonesia. There is a state of emergency in the worst affected […]
Forest moratorium extended in Indonesia
The Indonesian government has extended its forest moratorium for two more years. The moratorium covers new logging and plantation concessions, but licences that were granted when it was first signed in 2011 […]