Greenpeace Blocks Palm Oil Ships to Highlight Deforestation

Three tankers containing crude palm oil were halted by Greenpeace when they attempted to leave an Indonesian port for China and Europe. Activists wanted to highlight the rapidly expanding palm oil industry currently destroying rainforests, harming wildlife, and emitting greenhouse gases.

The activists painted words like “Climate Crime” in bright yellow on the sides of the ships and then climbed one ship’s anchor chain, preventing the ship from leaving the harbor.[social_buttons]

Southeast Asia’s palm oil industry has come under attack by green groups for the deforestation caused by the cash crop. This is not the first time Indonesia, the world’s biggest palm oil producer, has seen Greenpeace use the tactic of blocking palm oil tankers in a bid to protest environmental concerns.

“Today Greenpeace is taking action to expose the disastrous impacts of the palm oil and logging industries on Indonesia’s peatlands, forests and on the global climate,” said Bustar Maitar of Greenpeace Southeast Asia.

The blocked ships included Gran Couve, owned by the world’s largest listed palm oil firm Wilmar International Ltd, which had been loading 27,000 tons of crude palm oil bound for Rotterdam. The other two ships blocked at the port of Dumai in Sumatra were Smooth Sea, owned by PT Musim Mas, and Victory Prima, owned by Sarana Tempa Perkasa.

Greenpeace is calling on the Indonesian government to implement an immediate moratorium on all forest conversion, including expansion of oil palm plantations, industrial logging, and other drivers of deforestation.

Photo Credit: GeneC55 on Flickr under Creative Commons license.

1 thought on “Greenpeace Blocks Palm Oil Ships to Highlight Deforestation”

  1. Godspeed Green Peace! We already know how to produce Bio-Diesel without deforestation! SEE:
    The University of New Hampshire is exploring ways of forced production of algae for biodiesel that is yielding 10,000 gallons per acre and uses salty water. Their calculations show that a tiny area of the Sonoran desert in New Mexico (about 9%) would be enough area to produce all of the transportation fuel in the U.S. using their production techniques. Already, one company is experimenting with algae production stations at a power plant to capture the CO2 from the exhaust and use it to make algae for biodiesel. http://www.itsgood4.us/biodiesel.htm
    And can willingly pass along this information in great detail – it is for the bigger part on the net and taught i American schools!
    Canada plays an even greater role in preventing deforestation by growing Hemp, legally, SEE:
    Last word on Hemp in Canada, Canadian government site for the truth!
    http://www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/highlights/2008/0803hemp_e.html
    Bravo Canada!

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