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In 2014, the Indonesian company Medco shut down a logging project that had been cutting down forests for years. It just wasn't economical anymore. But then the Indonesian government gave it a new lease of life by funding climate targets .
Medco first set up a large wood plantation to produce wood chips for export. Then, in 2017, Indonesia gave Medco $4.5 million to build a biomass power plant in the region and asked the state-owned utility to buy the power it produces. In 2021, the government gave the plant an additional $9 million.
The company said it would have to double the size of its trees to meet power plant demand and would continue to use wood cut during forest clearance.
According to Forst, the local villagers were the worst affected. The project has made it difficult for the local hunter-gatherer people in the lowlands of Papua to find food.
This story is the result of new research by Climate Home News in collaboration with two Indonesia-based publications, The Gecko Project and Project Multatuli .
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Forest protection has been on our radar recently, with claims that logging companies are using a sustainability certification scheme called FSC to market themselves as sustainable while continuing to cut down forests.
The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) agreed at its meeting last year that companies cut trees between 1994 and 2020 if they restore some forests and compensate communities.
These companies include two Indonesian pulp and paper giants, Asia Pacific Resources International Ltd. (APRIL) and Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), which have been clearing large tracts of tropical rainforest for decades.
But environmental groups have accused the two companies of buying wood from suppliers who continue to cut down intact forests. They discovered that one supplier had cleared an area equal to 20,000 football pitches.
The FSC told Climate Home News that it "will not work with any organization that engages in destructive activities." "FSC must be prepared not to be cheated," replied one worker.
