- New data from Trase, a forest-tracking platform, indicates that palm-driven deforestation in Indonesia is at historical lows;
- Palm-driven deforestation appears to make up less than 10 per cent of Indonesian forest loss;
- This should be considered by the EU as part of its benchmarking process.
New data from the Trase platform indicates that deforestation for palm oil has now hit all-time historical lows.
In 2021 and 2022, deforestation for industrial palm oil was down to 16,900 ha and 19,900 ha respectively.
Taken in the context of Indonesia’s overall forest loss, this represents around 7 per cent of Indonesia’s overall forest loss in similar years.
This is significantly lower than the all-time high of 226,000 ha that was lost in 2012, according to the platform.
Palm-related deforestation has been on a steady decline since then. This also marks the point in time where Indonesia’s forest moratorium and palm oil moratoria were introduced – which have had a clear and significant impact on palm oil expansion and deforestation since then.
The fall in deforestation has also taken place without the ‘threat’ of the EUDR. It should be noted that these drops have taken place prior to the introduction – or even acknowledgement of the EUDR.
Trase’s authors also note that the commitments of various companies to ‘zero deforestation commitments’ (ZDCs) have not made a significant difference.
According to the authors, “exporters with and without ZDCs have similar rates of annual deforestation intensity – 0.27 ha for every 1,000 tonnes of palm oil for exporters with ZDCs compared to 0.23 ha for every 1,000 tonnes of palm oil for exporters without ZDCs.”
This would indicate that the success of Indonesia in reducing its deforestation rates – particularly in the palm oil sector – have largely been the result of domestic policy initiatives rather than international pressure.
It’s notable also that the significance of the EU market has similarly declined in palm exports. In 2013, exports to the EU represented 17% of Indonesian palm exports; by 2022 this had fallen to 10%.
In other words, even though the European Union had attempted to exert the greatest policy influence on Indonesian agricultural and forest policy through its various international initiatives, it has possibly had the least market influence.
Indeed, the Trase authors also note that Indonesian domestic has increased significantly over the past few years, from 32% of production to 44% between 2018 and 2022.
The figures should also be considered by the European Union as part of its deforestation country benchmarking as part of the EUDR.
By way of comparison, Canada lost almost 40,000 ha of forest annually between 2010 and 2020. While this is not a direct comparison between the two countries, the relatively small scale of palm-driven deforestation in a greater global context should nonetheless be considered.