TEST: Palm oil production in Brazilian Amazon threatens no deforestation, no exploitation commitments

Oil palm growers in Brazil have argued that palm oil production is a “green solution” to safeguard the Amazon as a result of planting on areas already degraded and cleared only before 2008. While palm oil production in the Brazilian Amazon has relatively lower environmental impacts than soy and beef, our new joint publication Palm oil Production in Brazilian Amazon Threathens NDPE Commitments under our Chain Reaction Research programme shows how also palm oil expansion can be linked to deforestation, fires, exploitative labour conditions, and land disputes. Chain Reaction Research found 1,224 hectares (ha) of deforestation between 2008-2021 on the plantations of nine Brazilian key palm growers. Particularly palm producer Brasil BioFuels was responsible for most of the deforestation that occurred in this period, with the majority cleared in 2019 and 2020.

For more information please contact Sarah Drost

Recent deforestation and fire alerts in legal reserves of Brasil BioFuels’ farm Fazenda Amanda (Pará)

Real-time Deforestation Monitoring report

Palm oil production in Brazilian Amazon threatens no deforestation, no exploitation commitments

07 December 2021

Oil palm growers in Brazil have argued that palm oil production is a “green solution” to safeguard the Amazon as a result of planting on areas already degraded and cleared only before 2008. While palm oil production in the Brazilian Amazon has relatively lower environmental impacts than soy and beef, our new joint publication Palm oil Production in Brazilian Amazon Threathens […]

Record deforestation in Brazil highlight need for new EU import law

02 December 2021

The recently released PRODES data for 2021 shows deforestation of 13,235 km2 (1,323,500 hectares) in the Legal Amazon, the highest number since 2008 and an increase of 22 percent when compared to the previous year (the annual rates cover a timeframe from August of the previous year to July of the current year). Since the beginning of 2019, when the current president, Jair […]

Satellite monitoring in action – ‘bad’ soy in sustainable animal feed

26 November 2021

Aidenvironment research contributed to a television broadcast about deforestation in the Dutch animal feed industry. Zembla, a Dutch documentary program, released a broadcast on November 25th at NPO2 concerning Brazil’s soy exports linked deforestation and animal feed companies in the Netherlands. Aidenvironment supported the research in Brazil, by providing data on deforestation and fires in several farms from soy producer SLC Agrícola […]

AidEnvironment insights: Gaps and opportunities in EU deforestation regulation and COP26 pledges

19 November 2021

November 2021 has been a month of promises and pledges to safeguard the world’s forests and further prevent carbon emissions from deforestation. Apart from the COP26 collective declaration to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030, yesterday the European Commission released a proposal for a regulation on deforestation-free products. The law aims to minimize the risk of deforestation in goods, such […]

Sinar Mas limits no-deforestation policies to flagship companies

29 October 2021

The Sinar Mas group, owned by the Widjaja family, is one of the largest conglomerates in Indonesia. Its flagship companies Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) and Golden Agri-Resources (GAR) have no-deforestation commitments. However, some Sinar Mas companies are not under the scrutiny of such policies. Aidenvironment documents at least 6,000 hectares of forest clearing inside Sinar Mas’ coal mining concession PT Berau Coal since […]

Video webinar available: Why cross-commodity no-deforestation policies are essential for palm oil buyers

29 October 2021

Chain Reaction Research held a webinar on October 21st, 2021 looking into a recent Aidenvironment report that documented 133,000 hectares of deforestation since 2016 that are significant producers of palm oil. The event focused on the need for more palm oil buyers’ No Deforestation, No Peat, No Exploitation (NDPE) policies to be applied across all commodities for no-deforestation claims to […]

PT Hutan Produksi Lestari continues to clear orangutan habitat in Indonesia

12 October 2021

The Indonesian company PT Hutan Produksi Lestari has cleared 755 hectares of forest between January and August 2021. This makes it the fourth largest deforester for industrial trees in Indonesia in 2021 so far. Since January 2020, the company has owned an industrial tree concession of 10,050 hectares in Kapuas district, Central Kalimantan province. The concession falls within the habitat of the Critically Endangered Bornean orangutan […]

Connecting EU timber operators to tropical deforestation-linked timber

07 October 2021

Aidenvironment has recently finalized a study for the environmental law charity ClientEarth on the EU timber market. The study is part of a wider project on the role of timber operators in forest governance, in the framework of two tools to combat illegal logging: Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade (FLEGT) and the EU Timber Regulation (EUTR). The study ultimately aims to inform […]

Three industrial tree plantation group companies responsible for 4,700 ha forest loss in Indonesia

07 September 2021

Just three pulp and paper companies in Indonesia were responsible for around 4,700 hectares of forest clearing during the first half of 2021, analysis by Aidenvironment shows. The figure indicates Indonesia is on its way to matching 2020’s deforestation figures, when just five companies were responsible for 13,000 hectares of forest loss. The three groups clearing the most forest in 2021 are […]

Indonesian KPP Group, a significant contributor to forest loss

11 August 2021

The Indonesian Kayan Patria Pratama (KPP) group, active in the provinces of East and North Kalimantan, has cleared 13,500 hectares of forests since 2016. Spatial analysis by Aidenvironment puts KPP among the largest deforesting company groups in Indonesia. KPP is a conglomerate company, with interests in logging, oil palm, rubber, coal mining, a huge hydropower project and shipping. The logging concessions of KPP […]

Laporan terbaru menunjukkan pentingnya penguatan kebijakan nol deforestasi oleh perusahaan penyuling kelapa sawit

06 August 2021

[Click here for the English version of the article] Sektor hutan tanaman industri di Indonesia dan Malaysia melakukan pembukaan hutan terus menerus. Pelaku pembukaan lahan adalah para rekanan bisnis dari perusahaan penyulingan minyak sawit utama di dunia. Dengan mengadopsi kebijakan komoditas silang, perusahaan penyuling minyak sawit dapat melindungi lebih banyak hutan. Amsterdam, 26 Agustus 2021. Dalam laporan terbarunya, Aidenvironment mendata […]

Papua lost 7,000 ha of forests due to pulp and paper companies

02 July 2021

Four companies deforested 7,000 hectares for industrial trees in Papua between 2016 to May 2021, analysis by Aidenvironment reveals. The largest deforester was the South Korean Moorim Group that cleared 3,800 hectares of forests during the said period and continued its clearing through 2021. Sumatera Dinamika Utama, a company group connected to Royal Golden Eagle, occupied second place with 1,300 hectares of […]

Automotive industry exposure to deforestation

01 July 2021

Cattle-raising is the leading driver of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, which lost 1.1 million hectares in 2020, the highest rate since 2012. In the past the pressure to stop deforestation concentrated on the beef supply chain and the three largest Brazilian meatpackers (JBS, Marfrig, and Minerva). Although leather is a co-product of beef, its links to deforestation have been […]

The Sumatera Dinamika Utama Group, third largest deforester in Indonesia’s pulp and paper sector over 2020

03 June 2021

The company group Sumatera Dinamika Utama (SDU) was the third largest deforester in Indonesia’s pulp and paper sector in 2020, mainly due to its plantation company PT Permata Borneo Abadi, which cleared 850 hectares of forests. Little public information is available on SDU. However, it is the most important supplier to Indonesia’s second largest pulp and paper producer Royal Golden Eagle (RGE). […]

Alas Kusuma Group second largest deforester in Indonesia’s pulp and paper sector

13 April 2021

The company group Alas Kusuma was the second largest deforester in Indonesia’s pulp and paper sector over 2020, as its subsidiary PT Mayawana Persada cleared 2,800 hectares of forests. The clear-felling was mainly in orangutan habitat and it is ongoing in 2021. Alas Kusuma has logging, industrial tree and oil palm concessions. Aidenvironment calls upon buying companies with no-deforestation commitments to use […]

Indonesia’s Royal Golden Eagle Group involved in deforestation, despite its sustainability commitments

16 March 2021

Amsterdam, 16 March 2021. One of Indonesia’s largest companies, the Royal Golden Eagle (RGE) group, is connected to 9,400 hectares of deforestation in 2020. RGE is among Indonesia’s largest companies in palm oil, pulp, paper and textile fibers. It claims to have a no-deforestation commitment. Aidenvironment has identified this deforestation through spatial and ownership analysis of Indonesia’s pulp and paper […]

From rainforests to paper and textile: An introduction

19 February 2021

This introduction is part of Aidenvironment’s project “Corporate Transformation in Indonesia’s Pulp and Paper Sector” that aims to stimulate the sustainable transformation of key pulp and paper companies through monitoring, research, and engagement. We will launch the project website on February 24, 2021 for more information on the project. Indonesia is among the world’s largest paper producers. The industry is expanding, and tropical rainforests […]