July 2007
How green are biofuels made from palm oil? In Indonesia, forests are being felled to make way for palm oil plantations. Deforestation is now the world's second greatest cause of greenhouse gas.
"This is very bad", laments Greenpeace representative, Hapsoro, looking around a palm oil plantation. In this area alone, 8,000 hectors of forest have been replaced with plantations. Last year, more than a billion tones of carbon dioxide was released into the environment by forest fires, caused to clear land for plantations. Indonesia has high hopes palm oil will become the new green gold. "We want to be the number one exporter", states forestry minister Ms Ka'ban.
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