The biggest challenges facing ASEAN are crisis preparation and climate change. From 2004 to 2014, half of the global disaster fatalities were ASEAN citizens. The economic impact of natural disasters such as floods, tsunamis, earthquakes, have resulted in US$91 billion of economic damage. Climate risk and...
Resources Sustainability Malaysia lockdown could spell disaster for key palm oil industry (17 Mar) Malaysia's decision to restrict movement nationwide in an effort to stop the spread of the coronavirus is raising fears it could imperil the country's vital palm oil industry. Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said...
Resources Sustainability The palm oil conundrum in EU-ASEAN relations (2 March) Palm oil tensions between the EU and Indonesia and Malaysia continue to be a point of contention in the group’s ties with Southeast Asian countries. With new regulatory changes now taking place on the basis of...
Resources Sustainability Palm oil-based green fuel program unlikely to empower palm oil farmers (17 Feb) Oil palm farmers have raised doubts that the palm oil-based “green fuel” scheme laid out in the government's recent five-year plan will benefit them, taking past biodiesel developments as cautionary tales. Palm...
Resources Sustainability Mobile App simplifies peatland restoration monitoring efforts in Indonesia An inexpensive, community-based monitoring system is enhancing land management strategies in the Indonesian province of Riau as the government rolls out techniques aimed at strengthening the ability of local people to reduce their vulnerability to fire....
Resources Sustainability U.S. biofuels not to blame for Indonesia and Malaysia deforestation (24 Jan) Since 1990, the United States has ramped up its production of biofuels—to about 16 billion gallons of ethanol and 1.6 billion gallons of biodiesel in 2017. At the same time, production of palm...
Resource Sustainability Palm oil processors top plantations in destroying proboscis monkey habitat (8 Jan) The oil palm processing industry has overtaken palm plantations as the biggest cause of the loss of habitat for the endangered proboscis monkey in Indonesia’s Balikpapan Bay. A new study pinpoints the shift...
Resource Sustainability Indonesia fires emitted double the carbon of Amazon fires (25 Nov) Fires from land and forest fires across Indonesia this year have pumped at least 708 million tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere — almost double the emissions from the fires that swept through...
Resources Sustainability Indonesia to launch voluntary carbon market (13 Nov) Indonesia, one of the world’s biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, is planning to launch a voluntary carbon trading scheme that could link to other countries if successful, a senior government official said on Tuesday. The South East...
Resources Sustainability Indonesian Court Fines Palm Oil Firm $18.5m Over Forest Fires In 2015 (28 Oct) An Indonesian court has fined a palm oil company $18.5 million for fires that destroyed 970 hectares (2,400 acres) of forest on its concession in Borneo in 2015. The judgment is...