The Indonesian Forestry Ministry is currently drafting legislation to change the classification of oil palm plantations to “forest”. Several Indonesian NGOs are protesting about this. See this article in the Jakarta Post: “Plantation inclusion will ‘kill forests’“.

We are extremely worried about the situation of claiming plantations as forests to meet the Govts’ claims of reducing their emissions by 26%.
A plantation is a flat piece of land where the forests have been destroyed in the name of the Great God Profit. Plantations are where forests have been converted for palm oil plantations to ‘feed’ the world and traffic, to meet the EUs’ biofuel targets and pulp and paper mills. The evidence is blatantly obvious.

Forests are where there are huge tracts of trees of many species accommodating the richest biodiversity this planet can hold. These forests have been with us since the ice age and each species of plant tells you how long it’s been in the forest, floor or canopy. The constant removal of trees releases billions of tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere,
so there’s no way to substantiate the Govts’ claims about reducing CO2 by 26%. A market has to be established where it is more profitable to keep the forests and harvest them than to just convert them to palm oil and pulp and paper mills. It is also wiser to keep the forests as they provide pure water and the soil is fertile and the healthy vitality is kept in perpetuity. This planet cannot be treated as a mere commodity, it is God’s planet, and we are entrusted with it, we are its stewards.

Please change your designation so that it is illegal to classify plantations as forests. Forests are forests with trees, plantations are plantations with palm oil, and pulp and paper mills.

This is for future generations of Indonesians.

Yours sincerely,
Mrs. S. M. Lodge