Palm oil imports from the tropics are soaring to meet growing demand for biodiesel.
The consequences of soaring demand for palm oil for biodiesel are becoming increasingly brutal:
"On the morning of December 11, I heard men rattling my door", said Basron, a 41-year-old resident of the Pinang Tinggi settlement. He then found himself confronted by an armed troop of soldiers, police officers, staff of the PT Asiatic Persada palm oil company and hired thugs.
"These houses are all slated for eviction and demolition today", one of the men said. A little later, Basron watched as a bulldozer reduced his hut to splinters.
In Jambi Province in Sumatra, a total of 1,500 men descended on the helpless indigenous Suku Anak Dalam and evicted them from their huts. At least 296 houses in four villages were looted and demolished in early December 2013.
For almost three decades, Asiatic Persada has been persecuting the forest dwellers - in 1986, the company started to cut down their rainforest for plantations. Yet the people stood firm - until December 2013.
Vast rainforest areas are being cleared for new palm oil plantations in response to the EU's agrofuel policy. Palm oil imports from the tropics are soaring to meet growing demand for biodiesel: 2.5 million tonnes were imported in the first half of 2013 - a 63% increase over the same period the previous year.
The most important producer of palm-oil biodiesel is Neste Oil Corporation. The Finnish government maintains a 51% controlling interest in the company, which operates the world's largest biodiesel refineries in Singapore and Rotterdam, each with an annual capacity of one billion liters.
The EU must act to stop imports of palm oil and abolish the requirement to include biodiesel made from food in diesel fuel!
Sign the petition to the EU, EU member states, and Neste Oil: www.rainforest-rescue.org/mailalert/936/indonesia-terror-and-eviction-for-palm-oil.
