Green Group Raps Jakarta Plan For Borneo Plantation
Date: 12-Aug-05
Country: INDONESIA
WWF International said the planned plantation in Kalimantan, along the border with Malaysia, would be the world's biggest, covering an area of 1.8 million hectares (about 4.5 million acres), or equivalent to half the size of the Netherlands.
It said the area chosen for the plantation was too high above sea level to be effectively cultivated.
"It doesn't make commercial or conservation sense to rip the forest out of The Heart of Borneo' to plant a crop which cannot grow in mountainous conditions," Mubariq Ahmad, chief executive director of WWF Indonesia, said in a statement.
"We are calling on the Indonesian government to work only with serious and responsible palm oil investors," he said.
The WWF statement said Chinese investors were funding the project. Indonesian authorities could not be reached for immediate comment.
However, local media in July reported plans to develop integrated palm oil plantation and processing facilities on Kalimantan which were projected to increase output by 2.7 million tonnes a year.
The plantations would start producing by 2010 on the 850-km-long border with neighbouring Malaysia, Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono told the Jakarta Post newspaper.
The newspaper said investors were still being sought.
