Mighty Earth investigations have caught a major rainforest destroyer, the First Borneo Group, red-handed laundering palm oil into the supply chains of the world’s largest palm oil traders.

The notorious First Borneo Group is clearing thousands of hectares of orangutan habitat in its PT Equator Sumber Rezeki (ESR) concession to make way for oil palm plantations inside a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, a biodiverse landscape within West Kalimantan part of Indonesian Borneo.

The ESR concession overlaps with the Labian-Leboyan watershed, a wildlife corridor used by endangered Bornean orangutans. Almost 80% of the concession area is considered to be of High Conservation Value (HCV), and nearly 2,500 orangutans call the watershed home.

Although First Borneo is on the commercial ’No Buy’ lists of multiple traders, companies are not effectively blocking this high-risk leakage actor from entering supply chains.

With improved road networks in the region, fresh fruit bunches (FFB) from leakage actors like First Borneo can easily enter supply chains through mills hundreds of kilometers away. Palm oil companies sourcing from mills in West Kalimantan need to conduct due diligence and inform their suppliers within at least a 150 km radius (as the crow flies) of non-compliant entities, including First Borneo.

Mighty Earth continues to investigate First Borneo and urges companies to put First Borneo and similarly high-risk groups on ‘No-Buy’ lists and ensure suppliers are strictly enforcing their ‘No-Buy’ policies.