Forest Conversion Program

Over 28 million tonnes of palm oil is produced worldwide annually and comprises a major food source all over the world. Palm oil is used in a wide variety of foods including crisps, cakes, biscuits and pastry. Vegetable oil production world-wide totals 95 million tonnes per year and palm oil is the world's second largest crop after soy. Palm oil sales are set to rise in Europe and dramatically so in the growing economies of China and India.

The expansion of oil palm generates concern among consumers and NGOs because of its environmental and social impacts. It is recognized that there are environmental pressures particularly as palm oil can only be cultivated in tropical countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia and Columbia. While some oil plantations are well managed, WWF, as a conservation organization, is concerned that others have imposed social and environmental costs due to indiscriminate forest clearing, uncontrolled burning with related haze and disregard for the rights and interests of local communities. The latest news from various media reported that several oil palm plantations were still associated with the burning of land while clearing their areas, the destruction of high conservation value forests and pollution of rivers resulting from effluents from their mills.

Based on WWF's data, more than four million hectares of areas have been occupied for plantation purposes and this number is predicted to increase. WWF believes that conservation and social-economic needs can be balanced if there is a well-planned landscape and better management practices for sustainable plantation, which includes forbidding high conservation value forest conversion.

The FCI serves as a big challenge in Indonesia, among others due to the recent 2 nd meeting of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) held in Jakarta in October 2004 which aims for the continuation of high conservation value forests (HCVF) work on the ground and better management practices (BMPs) development. Several emerging lines of activities that need to be focused include engaging financiers in the issues of green investment screening and spreading awareness and knowledge to key oil palm actors on sustainability and HCVF through a series of trainings, workshops, and communications materials. WWF-Indonesia has been included as a member in both Steering and Organizing Committee of the 2 nd RSPO meeting. The RSPO meeting resulted in a higher level of engagement towards the private sector and other key actors from companies, associations and the government.

For HCVFs, the work of FCI focuses on supporting ground work inside oil plantations and also the need for developing lessons-learned and good reporting documents.

In terms of work in BMPs, FCI-Indonesia supports WWF-Malaysia in putting efforts to finalize the development of BMP draft on mitigating human elephant conflicts.