JAKARTA — Environmental group Greenpeace has echoed calls by consumer goods giant Unilever to impose a moratorium on deforestation in Indonesia in support for the company’s pledge to purchase only certified sustainable palm oil.

Greenpeace also urged the country’s palm oil plantations to use sustainable forest management methods and stop expanding into peatland forests.

“Unilever’s calls for a moratorium on forest destruction in Indonesia should become an entry point for the government to stop the deforestation process,” said Greenpeace Southeast Asia political advisor Arif Wicaksono. “The government has to take action to reverse deforestation by initiating a moratorium on logging and forest conversion.”

Unilever has committed to using only palm oil from certified sustainable sources from the second half of 2008. The company said it would ensure the palm oil it used in Europe was also certified as sustainable by 2012.
“Now we need to take the next step,” Unilever chief executive Patrick Cescau said in a statement. “Suppliers need to move to meet the criteria, by getting certified both the palm oil from their own plantations and the palm oil they buy from elsewhere.”

Unilever is the world’s biggest consumer of palm oil, which it uses in leading brands such as Dove, Persil and Flora.

The company’s decision came after a Greenpeace campaign revealed Unilever’s suppliers are actively destroying orangutan habitat and clearing Indonesia’s peatlands and rain forests. According to Greenpeace, destruction of peatland rain forests contributes 4 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Greenhouse gas emissions are considered the main contributor to climate change.

The environmental group also said about 1,600 orangutans were killed on palm oil plantations during 2006.

(Source: The Jakarta Post)