A major palm oil producer is joining forces with environmental campaigners in a bid to ramp up forest protection.

A major palm oil producer is joining forces with environmental
campaigners in a bid to ramp up forest protection.

The giant Indonesian company Golden Agri-Resources (GAR) has agreed to
work within new standards aimed at saving forests that store a lot of
carbon.

International environment group The Forest Trust (TFT) is partnering
the company and will monitor compliance.

The palm oil industry has regularly been accused of destroying
old-growth forest as demand rockets.

The new deal expands on existing standards agreed under the Roundtable
on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), an international alliance of
producers, processors, retailers and environment groups.

Already, RSPO rules forbid clearing old-growth forest or land with
high conservation value, and developers are also supposed to obtain
informed consent from local people before initiating new plantations.

Under the new deal, GAR will go further, vowing not to plant on peat,
and not to clear forest where significant carbon is locked up in
trees.

This should mean that large tracts of forest that have been partially
logged will now be off-limits to the company.

Initially, the figure of 35 tonnes of carbon stored per hectare will
be used as a ceiling; but that could change as research progresses.

"We're not trying to undermine the RSPO - we're saying 'this is
something you guys need to look at and maybe move towards,'" said
Scott Poynton, TFT's executive director.

"Everyone's talking about taking the lead, but no-one's doing it -
this is an example of taking the lead," he told BBC News from
Indonesia.

Reputational hit
GAR is the world's second-largest producer of palm oil, a product
mainly used in food, fuels and cosmetics.

Like other companies in the field, it has been heavily criticised by
environmental groups - a state of affairs that it wants to change.

"As a leading player in the palm oil industry, we are committed to
playing our role in conserving Indonesia's forests," said Franky
Wijaya, GAR's chairman and CEO.

"Our partnership with TFT allows us to grow palm oil in ways that
conserve forests and that also respond to Indonesia's development
needs; creating much needed employment while building shareholder
value."

Earlier in the year, TFT finalised a deal with Swiss-based food giant
Nestle designed to "ensure that its palm oil procurement had no
deforestation footprint".

This led to discussions with suppliers such as GAR - and the
conclusion that in order to preserve their markets, growers would have
to purify their operations.

Greenpeace, which has taken the lead on the issue among international
NGOs, sees the deal as a potential step forwards.

"This is really throwing a gauntlet down to the rest of the palm oil
sector, and to other players," said campaigner Phil Aikman.

"It's setting a threshold for carbon, and that's pretty good - it'll
protect a lot of orangutan habitat and other important areas that have
been threatened by palm oil plantations.

"It challenges the rest of the sector to increase its productivity
rather than target new areas over and over again, and that's been the
main issue."

With RSPO, another issue has been compliance, with a number of
companies accused of failing to live up to their promises.

But TFT says it will be working closely with GAR to make sure pledges
are delivered.