British taxpayer could subsidise destruction of rainforests

(Times 11-May Ben Webster)

British taxpayers could subsidise the destruction of rainforests under a loophole in an international aid scheme which is supposed to protect ancient trees. Indonesia is seeking to redefine its palm plantations as forests in order to qualify for forest protection payments from Britain and other countries. The UN-backed scheme, known as Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD), is intended to reward countries which protect their rainforests. An area of rainforest the size of a football pitch is being destroyed each second, partly to create more plantations to meet rocketing demand for palm oil.

Indonesia has the fastest rate of deforestation, losing an area the size of Wales every year. The expansion of its palm plantations has pushed the orang-utan to the brink of extinction in Sumatra. A study by the Zoological Society of London found that removing original trees to grow palms had a devastating effect on wildlife, with plantations containing only a sixth of the species found in natural forests. Clearing rainforest to create plantations also releases vast quantities of carbon stored in trees and soil. It takes up to 840 years for a palm plantation to soak up the carbon emitted when rainforest is burnt to plant the crop.

Last year, British motorists used 23 million litres of Indonesian palm oil in diesel engines. Only 2 per of this came from longstanding plantations which meet international sustainability standards. Oil companies privately admit that most of the other 98 per cent probably came from new plantations on land where the original rainforest had been destroyed. The rules of REDD are still being defined but are likely to state that any type of tree with the potential to grow to at least five metres in height can be designated as forest and qualify for funding. Britain has contributed £295 million to the REDD scheme for the period 2010 to 2012 and is planning to give much larger sums after 2012, potentially reaching £1 billion a year by 2020. Australia, France, Japan, Norway,and the United States are also contributing to REDD. The Department for Energy and Climate Change said it hoped the REDD money would be used to protect natural forests but it could not rule out that some of the funding could be spent on new palm plantations. The European Commission appears to agree with the Indonesian Government that palm plantations should be defined as forests, according to a leaked draft of new sustainability rules obtained by The Times. It says that palm oil should be approved under the EU’s sustainability standards for biofuel if it comes from a “continuously forested area”.

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