Land in limbo: Nearly one third of Indonesia’s cleared old-growth forests left idle

Indonesia is the world’s largest producer of palm oil, a vegetable oil that is used for cooking and as an ingredient in many foods and in hundreds of everyday products. Indonesia also has the world’s largest reserves of nickel — a critical material for electric vehicles, solar panels and other goods needed for the green energy transition. Since 1950, more than 74 million hectares (285,715 square miles) of Indonesian rainforest — an area twice the size of Germany — have been logged, burned or degraded for development of palm oil, paper and rubber plantations, nickel mining and other commodities, according to Global Forest Watch. In addition, some 25% of its old-growth forests — which are typically high in stored carbon and rich in biodiversity — have been felled since 1990, according to the study, which focused on Indonesian deforestation from 1991 to 2020. This study has been conducted by LCLUC team led by PI Mathew Hansen, more information can be found here : https://apnews.com/article/indonesia-deforestation-palm-oil-eudr-0dbc5e4...