TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Biomass export boom brings risks of deforestation
The increasing domestic use of wood pellets and wood chips and skyrocketing exports to Japan and other markets present a business opportunity but also raise environmental concerns.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
A photograph taken on July 29, 2023, shows the forested highlands of South Sulawesi’s East Luwu regency around the Balambano hydropower plant in the village of Wasuponda. (Antara/Jojon)
T
he rising export and domestic consumption of wood pellets and wood chips creates business opportunities but also adds to the risk of deforestation in Indonesia as stakeholders boost the production of energy crop biomass in a highly land-intensive process.
Indonesia’s wood chip and wood pellet biomass exports increased by 42 percent and 387 percent year-on-year (yoy) to 1.63 million tonnes and 121,429 tonnes in 2023, respectively.
Japan and China were Indonesia's top wood chip export destinations with total shipments of 868,147 tonnes and 756,425 tonnes, respectively.
The top wood pellet export destinations, on the other hand, were Japan and South Korea with shipments of 52,735 tonnes and 68,025 tonnes, respectively.
Thermax Global, which makes boilers to turn biomass into energy, has noticed a rapid increase in biomass utilization worldwide.
In Indonesia, demand for biomass-fired boilers is expected to account for 60 percent of the company's sales this year, up from 47 percent last year, Thermax Global CEO Ashish Bhandari said in Jakarta on Sept. 3.
"We see more interest in waste energy and biomass-related solutions, and we're very excited," Bhandari added.
