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JAKARTA: Environment group Greenpeace on Friday welcomed
Unilever’s backing of a moratorium on palm oil deforestation in
Indonesia, saying the move will help save forests in the sprawling
archipelago.
The Anglo-Dutch food and consumer goods company
announced Thursday it would aim to use only palm oil from fully
traceable sources by 2015 in an effort to reduce the rapid
despoiling of Indonesia’s carbon-rich forests and peatlands.
“The writing is on the wall — the pressure
from the market will only increase as companies join this call for a
moratorium on deforestation,” Greenpeace advisor Arief Wicaksono
said in a statement.
The multibillion-dollar company’s support
could also help put pressure on Indonesian authorities to place a
moratorium on logging and the clearing of forests to make way for
plantations.
High global prices for palm oil, which is used
in goods from soap to biscuits and biodiesel, spurred deforestation
in Indonesia, the world’s largest crude palm oil producer.
Indonesia is the world’s third-highest emitter
of greenhouse gases, after the United States and China, mostly due
to deforestation.
-- AFP
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