Stories: Project POTICO: Sustainable Palm Oil on Low Carbon Degraded Land

2010 was a significant year for global efforts to tackle illegal logging. Here’s a look back on some of that progress.

The following interview with Craig Hanson and Moray McLeish was conducted and compiled by Jeremy Hance and Rhett A. Butler for mongabay.com and is reposted with permission. Read the entire piece here on the Mongabay website.

Expanding agriculture onto already degraded lands could relieve pressure on the world’s remaining forests.

Enabling tropical countries to boost their economies and feed global populations whi

Common data and clear definitions will enable the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil and REDD+ policy-makers to achieve a shared goal: sustainable oil palm expansion on degraded land in Indonesia.

In May 2010, Norway agreed to contribute up to $1 billion towards reducing deforestation and forest degradation and loss of peatland in Indonesia, which now account for more than 80 percent of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. The “Letter of Intent” is a promising first step, yet the two countries must still settle key details of the agreement. Below is WRI’s analysis of the Letter of Intent and recommendations for what should be addressed next.

A new policy to develop oil palm on degraded land could protect Indonesia’s forests. But what does “degraded” really mean?

An upcoming United States-Indonesia partnership is an opportunity to tackle deforestation.

Rainforest Preservation Project Underway in Indonesia

Palm Oil, Timber and Carbon Offsets (POTICO), a project of the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the NewPage Corporation, is making progress toward conserving rainforests in Indonesia by creating an ecologically and fiscally sustainable palm oil industry.

WRI, NewPage Launch Partnership to Protect Indonesian Forests

The World Resources Institute (WRI) and NewPage Corporation today announce a partnership to protect forests in Indonesia. NewPage will substantially fund WRI’s “Project POTICO” (Palm Oil, Timber, Carbon Offsets), an initiative to combat illegal logging and preserve virgin rainforests in Indonesia by diverting new oil palm plantations to degraded lands.

A new study by WRI and other researchers finds that much of the world’s deforestation is isolated in a handful of “hotspots,” not spread out over many nations and many locations.