New Guinea islanders protest clearing of 70 percent of island for oil palm plantation

In New Guinea, islanders on Woodlark Island are protesting a plan by Vitroplant to clear 70 percent of the island, or 60,000 hectares, to an oil palm plantation.

Deforestation, and the effects of forest clearing on emissions, continues to be a simmering controversy.

Greenpeace released its “Cooking the Climate” report which concluded that forest clearance in Indonesia for palm plantations has made the country the third largest producer of greenhouse gas emissions, behind the United States and China. The study found that Indonesia is losing 2 percent of its tropical forest each year to deforestation, and that the resultant emissions more than offset the gain from switching from fossil fuels to biofuels. Indonesia has six million hectares of palm under cultivation and plans to expand this to 10 million hectares by 2015.

Indonesia has announced plans to reserve 13.5 million acres for biofuels by 2010, of which 3.7 million acres will be palm oil plantations. Thailand has indicated that palm oil plantation will increase from 79,000 to 200,000 acres this year, with the potential to add another 1 million acres. The Philippines have reserved 1.1 million acres for palm oil plantation.

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