New satellite mapping reveals POSCO Daewoo continues to clear Indonesian rainforest at rapid pace in second half of 2017
Company could clear all remaining forest on its palm oil plantation by end of the year
New satellite mapping of Papua, Indonesia – home to the third largest rainforest in the world – shows that the Korean conglomerate POSCO Daewoo has continued to rapidly clear large areas of the rainforest for palm oil production at its palm oil plantation called PT Bio Inti Agrindo (PT BIA).
The mapping shows that POSCO Daewoo has destroyed an area of forest approximately half the size of the metropolis of Seoul, South Korea — an estimated total of 27,050 hectares of mostly primary rainforest – as of August 19, 2017.
Of PT BIA’s two blocks of land, block I has already been completely cleared, totaling 6,816 hectares of deforested land.
The new Planet satellite map of block II above depicts the area cleared from February 21, 2017 to August 19, 2107 – a total of 4,203 hectares, outlined in orange. The area outlined in yellow was cleared prior to February 21, 2017, a total of 16,031 ha. Combined with the complete clearing of block I (6,816 ha), POSCO Daewoo has cleared an estimated total of 27,050 ha of mostly pristine rainforests. Given its pace of clearing, it is likely more deforestation has occurred in the past month, but no cloud-free satellite image was available in this timeframe.
An estimated 8,032 ha of forest remain in the PT BIA concession, outlined in green. At POSCO Daewoo’s extremely rapid pace of clearing, it could clear the entirety of the remaining forest in its concession by the end of 2017. Indeed, the visible outline of new roads into the forested area indicate more clearing is imminent. POSCO Daewoo has refused to institute a moratorium on forest clearing.
This animation shows the conversion of forest to plantation by POSCO Daewoo from February 21, 2017 to August 19, 2017, totaling an approximate 4,201 hectares.
POSCO Daewoo should be on a black list for any potential customers, business partners, or financiers who are striving to achieve responsible business practices and supply chains.
Caption for banner image: New palm oil saplings planted on land that used to be covered by virgin rainforests at POSCO Daewoo’s PT BIA concession. @Mighty Earth, June 2016.
