PALM OIL SETS CO2 TIME-BOMB TICKING

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PALM OIL SETS CO2 TIME-BOMB TICKING

 

 

HOW PEAT FIRES ARE SET TO ACCELERATE GLOBAL CLIMATE

CHANGE AND SEAL THE ORANGUTAN'S FATE

 

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We have seen in the past weeks how the polar bears are

unable to reach their hunting grounds with the freeze

being unseasonably late. It appears that the fate of

the orangutan and polar bear – despite their vastly

different existences – might run in parallel. Loss of

orangutan habitat is driving the loss of polar ice. In

a year of terrible floods we can recognize the human

risk implied by global warming.

 

Over the next two weeks Montreal hosts the United

Nations climate conference. One key issue that will be

discussed is whether the Kyoto protocol should be

revised to afford incentives for the protection of

existing forest. Currently Kyoto only makes provisions

for reforestation and aforestation.

 

Whilst fossil fuels are seen as the driving force in

Global Climate Change and the principle source of

Greenhouse Gas emissions, there is another vast carbon

source on the verge of being released into the

atmosphere, with none of the benefits of fossil fuel

combustion.

 

30% of terrestrial carbon reserves are locked up in

peatlands. Indonesia holds 50% of the earth's peat

swamp forest. This means Indonesia's peat swamps are

of global importance.

 

These forests not only hold thick peat up to 20 metres

in depth, but are one of the last refuges for the

endangered Bornean orangutan, with only 50,000

individuals remaining, and critically endangered

Sumatran orangutan with only 7,300 individuals left.

Sumatran tigers, rhinos, and elephants are also at

risk.

 

Destruction of lowland forest for conversion to oil

palm plantations has been so rapid that developers are

now turning their attention to peat swamp forests.

These are an important component of the ecosystem due

to their function in absorbing excess water during the

wet season, and releasing this stored water during the

dry season, reducing the likelihood of floods and

forest fires respectively.

 

It is notoriously difficult to cultivate oil palms on

peatland greater than 1 metre thick, and the costs of

establishing a plantation on this soil type tend to be

40 per cent higher than on dry land. Although this

land is not suitable for oil palm cultivation, it

still holds valuable hardwood timber. The companies

seek legal permits for plantation development in order

to benefit from quick profit through unsustainable

forest clearance. Past evidence shows that palm oil

may not be developed after clearances – because of

fire risk and unsuitable land.

 

The peat is too soft to use heavy machinery to extract

logs – one of the reasons that the land is unsuitable

for palm oil development – so logging canals are dug

into the peat to extract the logs. The logging canals

drain the peat domes and what is left is a tinder-box

time-bomb of carbon-rich bio-matter.

 

The vast quantities of CO2 released in the 1997-98

forest fires in Indonesia will be dwarfed if palm oil

moves into these vast expanses of peat. But that is

what is set to happen. Proposals are being approved

right now. Indonesia is struggling to improve its

economy and investment in palm oil is attractive, but

the industry is not sustainable under current patterns

of expansion.

 

Millions of hectares of degraded and cleared land

stand unused as more forest is cleared for quick

timber profit. NGOs are putting pressure on the palm

oil industry to recognize the short-term perspective

being employed.

 

Last week in Singapore the palm oil industry's

self-regulation initiative – the Roundtable for

Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) - approved a set of

principles and criteria for the sustainable production

of palm oil. This is a positive first step, but NGOs

are concerned that the 2 year process of development

before implementation of these guidelines might not be

quick enough to save the peat swamps and their diverse

inhabitants. The clock is ticking on the CO2

time-bomb…

 

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Cockroach Productions has broadcast quality motion

footage and high impact still photographs illustrating

the palm oil story, the little known world of peat

swamp forests and the plight of the orangutans. We are

also available for interview, having recently returned

from several months on the ground in Indonesia

following the story.

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Contact: Nick Lyon or Evie Wright @ Cockroach

Productions

Tel: 01823 451 790

Mobile: 07816 755 128

Email: cockroachproductions

Web: www.cockroach.org.uk

 

For more images relating to the story see:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cockroach/sets/1077630/

PRESS RELEASE – COCKROACH PRODUCTIONS

Friday 2nd December 2005

 

 

Michelle Desilets

BOS UK

www.savetheorangutan.org.uk

www.savetheorangutan.info

" Primates Helping Primates "

 

Please sign our petition to rescue over 100 smuggled orangutans in Thailand:

http://www.thePetitionSite.com/takeaction/822035733

 

 

 

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