Indonesia’s Sinar Mas defends palm oil expansion

Sinar Mas Group, one of Indonesia’s top palm oil growers, denied accusations that its activities were damaging the environment and said it would stick to plans to expand its plantations. Greenpeace activists have targeted Sinar Mas in a recent campaign for contributing to deforestation in Indonesia, which is blamed as key source for greenhouse gas emissions in the Southeast Asian country. The company said it only opened up new plantations in degraded land that had been farmed on or previously logged and not rainforest. Sinar Mas produced 410,314 tons of crude palm oil in January to September 2008, against 509,095 tons in all of 2007. According to Greenpeace, Sinar Mas has 200,000 hectares of unplanted concessions in rainforest in Indonesia and plans to acquire an additional 1.1 million hectares, mainly in Papua. Greenpeace Southeast Asia has urged Indonesian palm growers to squeeze far higher yields from existing plantations rather than open up more land. (March 20, 2009)