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

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

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

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Indonesia’s state-run utility also plans to significantly increase the amount of biomass it burns to produce electricity.

Experts and environmental activists fear that rising international and domestic demand, coupled 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 alongside 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 increasing: the use of bioenergy has increased at a rate of about 3% per year between 2010 and 2022, the International Energy Agency said.

Experts, including the International Energy Agency, say it is important that this demand occurs in a sustainable way, such as using waste and crop residues rather than converting forest land to grow bioenergy crops. Deforestation contributes to erosion, damages biodiversity areas, threatens wildlife and people who depend on the forest, and exacerbates disasters caused by extreme weather.

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Many scientists and environmental activists have rejected the use of biomass altogether. 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-firing, rather than transitioning directly to clean energy, simply prolongs the use of coal.

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

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

In the carbon-rich Gorontalo forests of Sulawesi, the process of felling, chipping 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 cleared 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. An additional 2,850 hectares (7,040 acres) were cleared for road logging.

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After the trees are felled, they are turned into wood pellets at a facility near concessions owned by Byumasa Jaya Abadi, the largest exporter of wood pellets from Indonesia from 2021 to 2023, according to data compiled by Orija Nusantara of the Indonesian Environment Ministry. and forest database. The database contains no records of wood pellet exports before 2020.

Byomsa Jayabadi did not respond to repeated requests for interviews or comment. Banyan Tumbuh Lestari does not have publicly available contact information; The AP contacted major shareholders for comment but received no response. Ministries of Environment and Forestry of Indonesia; Energy, Mineral Resources, Marine Affairs and Investment did not respond to requests for comment.

Almost all of Indonesia’s wood pellet production is shipped abroad to meet global demand, said Aloysius Joko Purwanto, an energy economist at the ASEAN and East Asia 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 AP.

The South Korea Forestry Commission, which leads South Korea’s biomass expansion and policy, 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 enhancement of biomass production and utilization has coincided with the intensification of the use of domestic biomass in Indonesia.

The country’s state electricity company, Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN), plans to implement 10% biomass burning at 52 coal plants across the country. PLN estimates this will require 8 million tons of biomass per year — far more than the wood pellet industry’s end-2023 capacity of less than 1 million tons, 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 is likely to come at the expense of healthy, carbon-rich, carbon-absorbing forests,” according to a report by Mighty Earth.

PLN spokesman Gregorius Adi Trianto told the AP that the company’s plan relies on biomass from “organic waste such as tree branches, rice waste, and timber industry waste… rather than actively logged forests.”

With Indonesia lacking clear regulations and oversight of the expanding biomass industry, experts fear deforestation could increase for years to come.

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

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

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