Governments, Business Must Unite In Joint Action To Stop Forest Loss

27/04/2011 (WWF International) - Policymakers and business leaders must quickly back a bold target to stop forest loss as part of efforts to conserve biodiversity and fight climate change, according to a new WWF report.

The first chapter of WWF’s Living Forests Report, released today, examines the drivers of deforestation and identifies the opportunities to shift from business as usual to a new model of sustainability, which can benefit government, business and communities.

Based on a new global analysis showing that more than 230 million hectares of forest will disappear by 2050 if no action is taken, the report proposes that policymakers and businesses unite around a goal of zero net deforestation and forest degradation (ZNDD) by 2020 as a groundbreaking global benchmark to avoid dangerous climate change and curb biodiversity loss.

“We are squandering forests now by failing to sort out vital policy issues such as governance and economic incentives to keep forests standing,” said Rod Taylor, WWF International Forests Director.

Business and governments need forests

The first chapter of the report comes as business and political leaders meet this week in Jakarta, Indonesia, for the Business 4 Environment Global Summit (B4E). The conference will be addressed by His Excellency Mr. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, President of the Republic of Indonesia.

“The dual imperatives of ZNDD and meeting global demand for materials and energy pose both challenges and business opportunities for the forest products sector,” the report states. “Forest products are renewable and, when sourced from well-managed natural forests and plantations, tend to have a lower footprint than alternatives like steel, concrete and plastic based on fossil sources.”

On the first day of the conference, businesses from the forestry, mining and palm oil sectors operating on the nearby island of Borneo will meet as part of WWF’s Heart of Borneo Green Business Network.

At the summit, WWF will call on forestry companies to join the organization’s Global Forest & Trade Network, and also on other business sectors to support our goal in achieving certification of 75% of key global commodities in the region by 2020. More than 40% of the island’s forests are under concession to the private sector, with around 23% (6 million hectares) under management by the forestry industry.

Carrefour, a leading retailer in Indonesia is answering this call by endorsing WWF’s Global Forest & Trade Network (GFTN). Today, the group’s two biggest suppliers for tissue paper in Indonesia, PT Graha Kerindo Utama and PT Graha Cemerlang Paper Utama are pledging to implement sustainable business under the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).

"Our ambition is both simple and strong: to become the preferred retailer. This can only be achieved by managing our retail business in a responsible and sustainable manner," said RM Adji Srihandoyo, the Corporate Affair Director PT CARREFOUR

Heart of Borneo – a model for collaboration

More businesses than ever before are working toward sustainable forest management, and governments are strengthening land use criteria and developing groundbreaking economic and fiscal incentives on the island, one of the most forest-rich places on the planet.

On the ground, WWF and its local partners are developing pilot projects to demonstrate the feasibility of these approaches.

“In the Heart of Borneo, tangible examples of how these systems work are emerging. WWF-Indonesia acknowledges that sustainability does not occur overnight. We call on the business sector to join with us as we make the first steps on the road to a green economy and low carbon future, not just in Borneo, but in Sumatra and Papua as well – step by step,” said Dr. Efransjah, WWF-Indonesia CEO.

Right now on the island of Borneo in a 220,000km2 area designated for conservation and sustainable development called the Heart of Borneo, these are the ideas being put into practice.

ZNDD no barrier to sustainable forest-based business

Zero net deforestation and forest degradation by 2020 means no overall loss of forest area or forest quality, so a new monoculture plantation does not offset the loss of primary natural forest. The target requires the loss of natural or semi-natural forest to be reduced to near zero, down from the current 13 million hectares a year, and held at that level indefinitely.

To understand what this would mean in practice, WWF developed the Living Forests Model with the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), which forms the basis for the Living Forests Report.

The Living Forests Model projects that by “doing nothing” we could lose more than 230 million hectares between now and 2050.

“The Living Forests Model shows that conserving our forests is possible – and urgent. But it won’t be easy,” said Taylor.

Making a difference now and towards 2050

“Better governance and economic incentives will enable sound stewardship of forests and more productive use of already- degraded land,” Taylor said. “This would ensure enough farming land, timber plantations and well-managed forests to meet current global demand for wood and food without further forest loss.”

The report concludes that maintaining near zero forest loss in the longer term will require responses to rising pressures on forests due to demand for food, materials and fuel for a growing population, expected to hit 9 billion people by 2050.

“In the short term, halting deforestation is all about better governance,” said Taylor, “But as we get out towards 2050 and the population passes 9 billion, we will need to cut over-consumption and waste of food and energy, and boost productivity of farms and forestry to keep forest loss at near zero.”

More to come

Held in partnership with WWF, Global Initiatives and the Government of Indonesia, the B4E Summit hopes “to generate collaborative solutions to address the most urgent environmental and climate issues facing the world today.”

Additional chapters of the Living Forest Report will be released throughout the year to form a comprehensive analysis of the choices and decisions that must be made to secure a forested future for people and nature.

Forest and Climate Change 

 

Malaysia's Resource-Rich Sarawak State

 

18/04/2011 (Reuters) - Malaysia's Sarawak state, which goes to the polls on Sunday, is rich in resources such as natural gas, timber and crude palm oil.

Following is a summary of the key commodities and projects in the state located on Borneo island:

OIL & GAS

* National oil company Petronas operates one of the world's largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) complexes in Sarawak with eight production trains that have an annual capacity of 24 million tonnes.

* Shipments of Sarawak's LNG meet a large chunk of demand from South Korea, Taiwan and Japan. In 2007, LNG from Sarawak was also shipped to China.

* Petronas said it discovered new fields offshore Sarawak that had 100 million barrels of oil and 0.2 trillion standard cubic feet of gas in place. The discovery could see oil majors such as Shell (RDSa.L: Quote) and ExxonMobil ask for more production-sharing contracts.

TIMBER

* Malaysia is the world's fourth-largest exporter of tropical timber with the bulk of the shipments coming from Sarawak where most of the timber barons have their company headquarters.

* Exports are falling as Sarawak now allows only 40 percent of the state's production to be shipped out, while 60 percent must be used for the domestic timber processing industry.

* Analysts have raised their target prices for Sarawak timber firms such as Rimbunan Hijau Group's listed unit Jaya Tiasa , WTK and Samling as Japan will need timber to rebuild after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

* Some investors are shunning several of these firms based on their environment track record. Norway has barred its $550 billion sovereign wealth fund from investing in Samling and its unit Lingui Development over allegations of environmental damage in Sarawak.

PALM OIL

* Sarawak accounted for more than a tenth of total palm oil production of 17 million tonnes in 2010. Key planters in the state include Sarawak Oil Palm and Sime Darby . Malaysia is the world's No.2 palm oil producer.

* Last week, an industry body for eco-friendly palm oil censured IOI Corp for green and social violations in Sarawak and threatened further sanctions if the planter did not resolve the issues.

* Wetlands International and Dutch remote sensing institute Sarvision said large areas of carbon rich peatswamp forests were being destroyed in Sarawak to make way for estates.

POWER GENERATION

* Sarawak plans to double its hydropower capacity to 6,000 megawatts (MW) in 2015 by building five more dams to complement the Bakun and Murum dams that have a combined capacity of more than 3,000 MW.

* State government officials have declined to name a price for the expansion but they are counting on investors like China's state run power grid operator to help build the dams to exploit Sarawak's rivers.

* Sarawak Energy, which manages the power assets in the state, said it was in talks with 20 energy customers including smelters and processors on power tariffs.

SMELTERS

* Several big ticket aluminium projects have been announced but none has been confirmed pending the finalisation of the power purchase agreements, which could take place at the end of 2011.

* The biggest is Rio Tinto's $2 billion smelter joint venture with Cahya Mata Sarawak . The plant will have an initial annual capacity of 720,000 tonnes with an option to expand to 1.5 million tonnes.

* Another mega project is the 330,000-tonne aluminium smelter by Aluminium Corp of China with a local partner that is estimated to cost $1 billion.

* Projects in the pipeline include Australian OMH's proposed manganese plant in Sarawak and Tokuyama's planned $780 million polysilicon processing plant. [ID:nL3E7FE2DN]

* Press Metal has started operating its 120,000- tonne capacity aluminium smelter in Sarawak in which Japan's Sumitomo Corp has an equity stake. The plant is set to be the first customer of power from Bakun dam. The Malaysian firm also has a second phase expansion plan for a 240,000-tonne capacity plant in Sarawak.

PRECIOUS METALS

* Canadian miner Olympus Pacific Minerals has raised its stake in a small gold field in Sarawak that has about 1.8 million ounces in reserves. 

Sarawak

Government 'greatly concerned' by palm oil production

19/05/2009 (The Independent) - The Government has joined calls for Britain’s best-selling household groceries to use sustainable palm oil.

The Environment Secretary Hilary Benn said the Government was “greatly concerned” by the impact of palm oil production in South-east Asia, where it causes extensive deforestation and threatens the survival of the orangutan and other rare animals.

Producers chop down forests in Sumatra and Borneo to plant high-yielding oil palms whose oil is poured into food, soaps and skin creams.

As the Independent disclosed earlier this month palm oil is in, or suspected to be in, 43 of the UK’s 100 best-selling grocery brands, including Cadbury Dairy Milk, Mr Kipling cakes and Dove soap.

It is often labelled as “vegetable fat” or “vegetable oil,” making it difficult for the public to exercise choice.

In his first intervention in the palm oil debate, Mr Benn told the Independent: “The UK Government is greatly concerned by the potential environmental impacts of unrestrained palm oil production, regardless of end use, and I want to see sustainability standards adopted to help halt damaging practices.”

The Cabinet minister added: “I am pleased that some UK businesses have already made commitments to using only sustainably-sourced palm oil and would strongly encourage others to do the same.”

His comments were welcomed by the World Wildlife Fund and will intensify pressure on food and household products firms to change their buying policies.

Last week WWF announced it would start scoring companies on whether they were matching their public commitments on sustainability with purchases of certified sustainable palm oil.

Almost four per cent of global palm oil production has been certified sustainable by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (Rspo) on the grounds that they have not been sited on recent rainforest land, limit pesticide use and treat workers well.

However since the first Rspo-certified supplies arrived in Europe in November, businesses have bought only 1 per cent of the amount available, 15,000 out of the 1.3m tonnes available. Unilever, which set up the Rspo with WWF in 2002, and Sainsbury’s are two companies which have bought the oil, which is about 15 per cent more expensive than normal supplies.

“This sluggish demand from palm oil buyers, such as supermarkets, food and cosmetic manufacturers, could undermine the success of sustainability efforts and threatens the remaining natural tropical forests of Southeast Asia as well as other forests where oil palm is set to expand, such as the Amazon,” saidDavid McLaughlin, WWF vice president of agriculture.

Ginny Ng, WWF’s senior program officer for Borneo and Sumatra, urged companies to act quickly. She warned: “The tropical forests of Borneo and Sumatra are being cleared at such a rapid pace that the carbon emissions from this deforestation are greater than the industrial emissions of some developed countries.

“The orangutans, elephants, tigers and rhinos on these islands don’t stand a chance of survival if their forests aren’t protected. Creating a demand for sustainably grown palm oil is essential to their survival.”

WWF urged companies to make public commitments that they would use 100 per cent Rspo-certified palm oil by 2015.

Although most companies say they want to move to source palm oil sustainably, only a few have named a date when they will switch to an Rspo-only supply. Premier Foods says it will do so by 2011, United Biscuits by 2012, Sainsbury’s by 2014, and Unilever, Northern Foods, Kraft and

Tesco all say they will do so by 2015.

Companies that have not set a date include Kellogg’s, Cadbury, Heinz, Mars, Nestle, Procter & Gamble, Reckitt Benckiser, Morrisons, Co-operative Group, Marks & Spencer, and Waitrose.

The Food and Drink Federation, which represents food manufacturers, said its members were fully aware of the need for palm oil to be from more sustainable sources and its “leading members” were actively participating in the Rspo.

“We hope other companies will follow this lead,” the FDF told the Independent.

“FDF fully supports the aims and the multi-stakeholder approach of the RSPO to bring more sustainable palm oil to the market. But the UK is only a small player in the complex global market for palm oil, importing approximately 1 per cent of the world’s annual crop”.