Sinar Mas

The Asia Pulp & Paper Group (APP) – one of the world's largest paper companies – has pledged to stop its suppliers cutting down natural forests in Indonesia. It hopes this will help preserve the threatened habitats of endangered species, increase respect for the rights of the region’s indigenous peoples and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from carbon-rich peatland. APP worked with environmental NGOs Greenpeace and the The Forest Trust (TFT) on the plan, which came into effect at the beginning of February.

The world's palm oil industry is going through upheavals which bodes ill for the forests of south east Asia and is likely to have impacts as far away as Africa.The markets for palm oil are shifting, refined material prices are dropping, local tariffs are changing and the sustainable land-base is shrinking. These volatile market conditions are being faced by huge conglomerates, many of which have been implicated in breaking laws, ethics and green credentials in the past.

A concerted effort is needed to develop sustainable solutions for global food security problems, government officials and business leaders said today at the 20th World Economic Forum on East Asia in Jakarta.

A rather embarrassing challenge to the honest robustness of last week's agreement between the EU and Indonesia on providing legal and sustainable timber with independent verification on its provenance, is on its way in the form of cute images of 12 rare Sumatran tigers, including a mother playing with cubs.