Indonesian forests pay the price for growing global demand for biomass energy

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JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Huge swaths of virgin forest are being cut down across Indonesia to meet growing international demand for biomass materials that are crucial to many countries' transition to cleaner forms of energy.

Almost all of the biomass from forests destroyed to produce wood pellets since 2021 has been sent to South Korea and Japan, The Associated Press found in an examination of Indonesian satellite images, company records and export data. Both countries have contributed millions of dollars to support the development of biomass production and use in Indonesia.

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Indonesia's state-owned company also plans to significantly increase the amount of biomass it burns to produce electricity.

Environmental experts and activists fear that growing international and domestic demand, combined with weak domestic regulation, will accelerate deforestation while prolonging the use of highly polluting fossil fuels. Biomass is organic matter, such as plants, wood, and waste, and many coal-fired power plants can be easily modified to burn it along with coal to produce energy.

“Biomass production – which has only recently begun to emerge on an industrial scale in Indonesia – represents a serious new threat to the country's forests,” said Taimer Manurung, director of Orija Nusantara, an environmental and conservation organization in Indonesia.

As countries accelerate their energy transitions, demand for biomass is growing: bioenergy use has increased at a rate of around 3% annually between 2010 and 2022, the International Energy Agency said.

Experts, including the International Energy Agency, say it is important that this demand is produced in sustainable ways, such as using waste and crop residues rather than converting forest land for bioenergy crops. Deforestation contributes to erosion, damages areas of biodiversity, threatens wildlife and forest-dependent humans, and exacerbates disasters caused by extreme weather.

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Many scientists and environmental activists have completely rejected the use of biomass. They say burning wood-derived biomass can emit more carbon than coal, and logging dramatically reduces the ability of forests to remove carbon from the atmosphere. Critics also say that using biomass for co-combustion, rather than making a direct transition to clean energy, simply prolongs the use of coal.

In Indonesia, biomass production is causing deforestation throughout the archipelago.

Orija Nusantara reports that since 2020 more than 9,740 hectares (24,070 acres) of forest have been cleared in areas where biomass production is permitted. Permits have been issued for more than 1.4 million hectares (3,459,475 acres) of energy plantation forests in Indonesia, with more than a third of that land being intact forest. More than half of these concession areas are home to key species such as rhinos, elephants, orangutans and Sumatran tigers, Manurong said.

In Sulawesi's carbon-rich Gorontalo forests, the process of felling, shredding and shipping ancient trees to make energy-dense wood pellets has been simplified. More than 3,000 hectares (7,410 acres) of forest have been logged in a concession owned by Banyan Tumbuh Lestari, from 2021 to 2024, according to a satellite analysis that the international environmental organization Mighty Earth shared with the AP. Another 2,850 hectares (7,040 acres) were cleared for road clearing.

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After the trees are cut down, they are converted into wood pellets at a facility near concessions owned by Byumasa Jaya Abadi, Indonesia's largest wood pellet exporter from 2021 to 2023, according to data compiled by the Environment Ministry's Orija Nusantara. from Indonesia. and forestry database. The database does not contain records of wood pellet exports before 2020.

Piomasa Jayaabadi did not respond to repeated requests for interviews or comment. Banyan Tumbuh Lestari has no publicly available contact information; The AP contacted major shareholders for comment but did not receive a response. Indonesian Ministries of Environment and Forestry; Energy, Mineral Resources, Marine Affairs and Investment did not respond to requests for comment.

Almost all of Indonesia's wood pellet production is sent abroad to meet global demand, said Aloysius Joko Purwanto, an energy economist at ASEAN and the East Asian Economic Research Institute.

Most of Indonesia's wood pellets went to South Korea (61 from 2021 to 2023, according to government data).

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“It is clear that the governments of Japan and South Korea are trying to buy more biomass from Indonesia to reduce their domestic emissions,” said Bhima Yudhisthira, executive director of the Indonesia-based Center for Economic and Legal Studies.

Both countries have provided millions of dollars in financial support for biomass development in Indonesia through research, policy, construction and other support, according to a review of publicly available trade and government agreements by The Associated Press.

The South Korean Forestry Commission, which leads biomass policy and expansion in South Korea, did not respond to requests for comment. Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries also did not respond to a request for comment.

The improvement in biomass production and utilization has coincided with the intensification of domestic biomass use in Indonesia.

The country's state-owned power company, Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN), plans to implement 10% biomass burning at 52 coal plants across the country. The PLN estimates this will require 8 million tonnes of biomass per year, far exceeding the wood pellet industry's capacity by the end of 2023 of less than 1 million tonnes, according to Indonesian civil society organization Trend Asia.

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To achieve the PLN's ambitions, a 66% increase in forest plantation land will be needed, “which will likely come at the expense of healthy, carbon-rich and carbon-absorbing forests,” according to a report by Mighty Earth.

PLN spokesman Gregorius Adi Trianto told the AP that the company's plan is based on biomass from “organic waste such as tree branches, rice waste and waste from the logging industry… instead of clear-cut forests.” actively”.

With Indonesia lacking clear regulations and oversight of the growing biomass industry, experts fear deforestation could increase in the coming years.

“We are already far behind when it comes to monitoring and regulating issues related to biomass production in Indonesia,” said Yudistira. “There is definitely a lack of due diligence and the forests are suffering.”

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Associated Press writer Yuri Kajiyama in Tokyo contributed to this report.

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