MALAYSIAN - CRR REPORT - PALM OIL BLIND SPOT

A “blind spot” in the sustainability policies of major palm oil conglomerates is allowing plantation companies clearing rainforest in Malaysia to continue feeding ostensibly “deforestation-free” supply chains, according to a new report by eco-watchdog Chain Reaction Research (CRR).

Over the past decade, most of the world’s largest processors, traders and users of palm oil have adopted “zero-deforestation” policies, pledging to sever the link between their sprawling supply chains and the destruction of rainforests, especially in Indonesia and Malaysia, which together account for most of the world’s production of palm oil, used in consumer goods ranging from chocolate to laundry detergent.

In Indonesia, the government long ago banned standalone logging concessions. A forest there can only be cleared if it is explicitly linked to another type of development — like an oil palm plantation. This makes it easy to establish when a rainforest has been cleared for the purpose of setting up a plantation, and to label the operator of that plantation ineligible to supply buyers with “zero-deforestation” pledges.

In Malaysia, however, state governments can issue forest clearance permits that have the clear-felling of forests as their sole purpose. Because such permits do not then require companies to disclose what the cleared area will be used for, be it an oil palm plantation, mining project, or some other undertaking, they have led to situations where one company clears an area only to have a different one start an oil palm project there later, the report said - link - more like this - link