Indonesia Biofuel Not Behind Environment, Food Woes

Published: May 2, 2008, 7:41 am

Tags: news, food woes, indonesia biofuel not behind environment, indonesia news, indonesia rice

JAKARTA - Indonesia’s biofuel sector is not a major force destroying tropical forests or squeezing out land used for food production, a senior industry official told Reuters on Wednesday. The grain and oilseed-based biofuel sector has come under attack from green groups for accelerating the destruction of forests, while some analysts blame it for contributing to soaring world food prices by diverting crops that could be used for food. “There is no proof that palm oil plantations clear the forest. The government’s rule is very clear on this and firms don’t dare violate it,” Paulus Tjakrawan, secretary general of the Association of Indonesian Biofuel Producers, said. Indonesia has diverse tropical forests with rare tigers and endangered orangutans, but Greenpeace estimates it had the fastest pace of deforestation in the world between 2000 and 2005, equivalent to 300 soccer pitches of forest destroyed every hour. Tjakrawan said most of the

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