Japanese investments in Indonesia's ‘conflict palm oil’
09 March 2021
Located almost at the center of the island of Sumatra, Indonesia, Tesso Nilo National Park is an important habitat for iconic Sumatran wildlife like the Sumatran elephants and Sumatran tigers. It is said to have greater diversity than the Amazon in South America (Gillison 2001). But it is being encroached upon by illegal palm oil plantations producing 'conflict palm oil'. At least four Japanese companies are suspected to be using this ‘conflict palm oil’, and are linked to Bank of Mitsubishi UFJ, Mizuho Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp., Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank and/or Norinchukin Bank, reports Fair Finance Japan.
The full Fair Finance Japan case study (in Japanese) is available here.
The FFI news report is here.
