Peatlands are ultra-carbon rich soils. When they are drained to make way for palm oil production, they produce massive quantities of greenhouse gases, helping make Indonesia the third largest global warming polluter in the world, behind China and the United States. Palm oil production in Indonesian peatlands alone is responsible for four percent of total global warming pollution (total palm oil production in Indonesia accounts for much more).

Indonesia's forests are also the home to endangered orangutans (whose population has declined up to 50 percent in the last 10 years, primarily due to palm oil expansion), Sumatran rhinoceroses, and tigers. Today's action by the Indonesia government threatens these endangered animals - and the carbon rich forests they live in - with extinction.

Secretary of State Clinton can play a constructive role in protecting the forests and the climate by urging Indonesia to reverse this dangerous action - and by working with Indonesia to establish powerful financial incentives for protection of tropical forests.

The Associated Press

Indonesia has lifted a yearlong moratorium on the use of peatland forests by palm oil companies, a senior Agriculture Ministry official said Wednesday, angering environmental groups who say the decision will contribute to global warming.

The government will start issuing permits which have been withheld since December 2007 immediately in areas that meet certain criteria on the depth of the peat, mineral quality and other issues, said Ahmad Manggabarani, without elaborating.

Indonesia is the third-highest emitter of carbon dioxide behind China and the United States, largely because much of the palm oil on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra is planted on carbon-rich peatland that must be drained first, releasing millions more tons of CO2 into the atmosphere each year.

Manggabarani said the decision to start reissuing permits was based on the desire to increase productivity of palm oil, which is used for cooking, cosmetics and as a cleaner-burning biofuel. The country is already the world's top producer of the commodity.

"We are disappointed," said Bustar Maitar, a Greenpeace Southeast Asia forest campaigner. "We had hoped after a year, the freeze would be permanent."

More information:

"Cooking the Climate," Greenpeace report on how the world's food, cosmetics, and biofuels industries are driving destruction of Indonesia's carbon rich forests: