Bold New Proposal For Indonesia: Cut Down Forests, Plant Oil Palms, Classify It As "Reforestation"

[hatrack]

Across large swaths of Indonesia, forests have been cleared to make way for oil palms, making the plantation industry one of the leading drivers of deforestation in the country. But this inconvenient truth may soon be masked by a sleight being peddled by the country’s leading forestry university to reclassify oil palms as a forest crop rather than an agricultural one — effectively counting oil palm plantations as forest.

The push, initiated in 2018 by Yanto Santosa, a professor of forestry at the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB), is aimed at allowing palm oil companies to plant in forest areas — something they’re currently prohibited from doing. Yanto, who is controversial within the academic community for his views in support of the palm oil industry, is working on an academic manuscript justifying what critics say is a blatant attempt at greenwashing. “Through the drafting of this academic manuscript, the public will understand that the presence of oil palm actually increases the size of forest cover,” Yanto said as quoted by local media.

What that means is that when actual forests are cleared to make way for plantations, it won’t count as deforestation, according to Yanto. And when oil palms are planted in degraded forest area, this will count as reforestation. Since there are 16.4 million hectares (40.5 million acres) of oil palm plantations in Indonesia, by classifying oil palm as a forest crop, the country will automatically gain 16 million hectares of forest cover, Yanto said — an instant reversal, but only on paper, of decades of deforestation.

Naresworo Nugroho, dean of IPB’s school of forestry, said planting oil palms in forest areas would also have climate benefits. He said the crop could absorb 57.2 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) per hectare per year, higher than stands of timber trees like sengon (18 tons of CO2e/hectare/year), teak (21 tons) and pine (20 tons). Naresworo said the government had a “heavy duty” to consider this climate benefit, “because our emissions can be reduced by oil palm, which can also absorb carbon.” Oil palm plantations undoubtedly store carbon, but nowhere near as much as the forests that they replace. Clearing a plot of standing forest to establish a palm plantation releases more CO2 than can be sequestered by growing oil palms on the same plot. So while a new oil palm plantation may grow faster and sequester carbon at a higher annual rate than a naturally regenerating forest, it will still end up storing less carbon (50-90% less over 20 years) than leaving the original forest standing.

EDIT

https://news.mongabay.com/2022/01/indonesian-proposal-could-redefine-palm-oil-driven-deforestation-as-reforestation/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1641655292

[bucolic_frolic]

1. Mankind will cut down the last tree for firewood

There is no end to human stupidity