Saving the environment, or hurting it? ED WRAY travels to a palm oil-producing region of Indonesia and finds no easy answers.
The idea of using plants to create environmentally friendly fuels seems like a great solution to the problem of global warming caused by the burning of fossil fuels. The air is cleaner, farmers get a new business and environmentally conscientious consumers can reduce their carbon footprints.
So where's the problem?
Some environmentalists say it's in places like Indonesia's Kalimantan region.
The use of palm oil as a biofuel -- especially in the European Union, where planned legislation calls for 10 percent of all fuels to be plant-based by 2030 -- has raised palm prices and fed a boom in palm plantations. Enormous plantations are being developed across Kalimantan, many of them so large it takes hours to drive across them.
Around 4.5 million acres of forest were destroyed each year between 2000 and 2005, a rate of 2 percent annually or 20 square miles a day, according to Indonesian environmental activists.
The forest is home to some of the last remaining orangutans in the wild and activists fear the animal will be extinct in less than 20 years if the plantations keep expanding. Each month, several injured or orphaned animals are rescued from the plantations and brought to rehabilitation centers.
And the clearing of the forest is not as environmentally friendly as it might seem. The main method of clearing land is by burning, releasing huge amounts of carbon into the atmosphere each year and sending clouds of smog across Southeast Asia.
Palm plantation expansion is also threatening the way of life for indigenous people. In the words of Dayak elder Stone Christopel Sahabu:
"All the forests that I have lived off and protected since 1972 have been cleared for palm oil plantations. The loss of our forests means the loss of wild animals and plants that are useful for our Dayak traditional medicine. The forest products we depend on a lot for our livelihood, such as rubber, rattan, and wood, have been devastated."
So are biofuels, on balance, good for the world? It's a more complex question than many realize, as you can in this photo gallery, which looks at the impact of palm oil on the forests and villages of Kalimantan.
See the photo gallery here.
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asap contributor Ed Wray is the AP's photo editor in Jakarta, Indonesia.
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