• Top Indonesian ministers who pushed for the passage of a deregulation bill that benefits the mining and “dirty energy” industry have links to some of those very companies, a new report shows.
• The report by a coalition of NGOs highlights “massive potential for conflicts of interest” in the drafting and passage of the so-called omnibus bill on job creation.

• Indonesia’s environment ministry has issued a new regulation allowing protected forest areas to be cleared for a “food estate” program.
• The program is aimed at boosting domestic crop supplies, but critics say it prioritizes the interests of agribusiness at the expense of small farmers and the environment.

A Korean palm oil giant has been buying up swathes of Asia's largest remaining rainforests. A visual investigation published today suggests fires have been deliberately set on the land

Petrus Kinggo walks through the thick lowland rainforest in the Boven Digoel Regency.

Greenpeace slams Indonesia for lack of action against the palm oil sector as vast areas of forests burned in five years.

• A rule allowing subsistence farmers to burn small plots of land has been reinserted into the Job Creation Act passed last week.
• Other provisions affecting the plantation industry have also been adjusted in a new version of the law that appeared this week.

Main photo: Protestors calling for land reform, Jakarta, September 2019 / Dhemas Reviyanto / ANTARA FOTO

• Greenpeace Southeast Asia has identified nearly 3,500 hectares (8,650 acres) of peatland clearing in pulpwood plantations in Sumatra supplying Asian Pulp & Paper.

• Gulzhan Musaeva, an independent financial analyst writes about CIMB’s sustainability commitments. CIMB is Malaysia’s second largest bank and a major leader to regional plantation companies.
• Musaeva argues that CIMB’s reluctance to address the issues associated with forest sector borrowers head-on casts doubt on its sustainability aspirations.