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HCS+: reports of GMC-experts ready

How the palm oil industry might go green

07/12/2015  GMC-experts contributed to the new "High Carbon Stock Study" (HCS+), commissioned by the Sustainable Palm Oil Manifesto group. The study is supposed to make the palm oil industry switch to more sustainable ways while defining which sort of lands should be considered off-limits for palm oil cultivation, first and for all peatlands. Read and download the Consulting report 5: Practical guidance to locate and delineate peatlands and other organic soils in the tropics by. Dr. Alexandra Barthelmes, in charge of the GMC's Global Peatland Database. Also available now: the „Independent Report from the Technical Committee“ co-authored by GMC-expert Prof. Hans Joosten. There are two press releases on the publishing of the report, "HCS+ Proposes a New Pathway to Sustainable Oil Palm Development" and "HCS+ gets support from key players in the palm oil industry and the Sabah Forestry Department".

The HCS+ met high media coverage including reports of The Economist , nature , Reuters/yahoo news, author and journalist Jonathon Porritt and Economist/youtube. The spread of oil-palm plantations in recent years has destroyed swathes of tropical forest in low-lying tropical areas of south-east Asia and Africa, releasing much of their trapped carbon into the atmosphere, chasing off indigenous communities and putting migrant workers under appalling conditions.