Note that Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan did not say that his Ministry would not release another big batch of land for oil palm expansion!

This is how it's going to work:

1. Ministry of Forestry decrees that oil palm in forest reserves can be allowed so long as there is no forest there ("degraded forest", "grasslands").

They'll start to legalize the millions of hectares of forestland that have already been allocated to oil palm companies and who have started clearing the forest in contravention of the law. Price: about 100 dollars per hectare.

Next, they'll start mapping grasslands in the forest reserves and allocate them for further expansion. Normally, these would be the sites for Tree Plantation Projects (HTI).

2. The EU will be ever so happy with this. This, after all, is what they meant when their draft directive says that oil palm conversion doensn't necessarily imply deforestation: "restore degraded forest reserves with oil palm".

3. Due to confusion over forest definitions, interdepartemental confusion and lack of control and monitoring, deforestation for oil palm expansion in forest reserves will continue all the same.

4. Next the millions of hectares of unrealized tree plantation projects ("HTI") will be moved into the forested sections of the forest reserves and bring about new logging and deforestation. Since tree plantation expansion is not getting the public attention at present that it should be getting, this can continue for another number of years.

A typical example of Indirect Land Use Change and of buying time through confusion. It's very real.

Here's what should be done but due to corruption and faux pas environmentalism will never occur:

A timely, true analysis of NATURAL forest cover within Indonesia should be undertaken. Do NOT count tree plantations as forests because they are nothing but a crop.

Free trade on any oil palm may be allowed only if it is proven by an independent party that natural forest clearance has not occured.

Indonesia would be debited, not credited, for any conversion of natural forest against this free trade.

Good comments both, sounds intractable...like U.S. health care...

how close is google earth or other sat telemetry to letting us talk with pictures?

just a thought

Forest is not mere presence of trees or any vegetation. It is an ecosystem consisting of rocks,soils,waters,air,plant and animal life including microbes all acting in an integrated manner to produce the forest. There is no human intervention in creation of forests except for interference for selfgain thereby causing irreversible damage to the forest ecosystem.

Thus, any plantation including palm oil plantation done by human intervention does not qualify to be called as forest. It is just an artificial. Further, it becomes a monocropping of oil palm.