South Korean trading giant to compensate for past deforestation in Papua

Posco International subsidiary Bio Inti Agrindo’s palm oil plantation in Papua. Image: Mighty Earth South Korea’s largest trading company, which has been called out for destroying nearly 15,000 hectares of primary forest in Indonesia’s Papua region, has released a zero deforestation policy and pledged to compensate for some areas that were cleared. Posco International, which has 34,000 hectares of palm oil plantations in Papua and produced about 80,000 tonnes of palm oil last year, will also require third-party suppliers to observe its No Deforestation, No Peatland, No Exploitation (NDPE) policy. The company’s policy, published on its website , came after years of pressure from non-governmental organisations and the divestment of its shares by Dutch and Norwegian pension funds. The new policy has been welcomed by campaign group Mighty Earth, which provided input for the draft version of Posco International’s NDPE policy. ‘Remediation is critical’ Mighty Earth’s senior campaign director Deborah Lapidus said Posco International’s pledge to “compensate for its legacy of forest destruction” is still rare in the industry and an encouraging sign. “Given that most of the concession area has already been cleared, it is critical that the company genuinely remediates for the impacts of its deforestation,” she […]

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