Major brands join forces to protect Indonesia biodiversity-rich area from deforestation

Consumer brands including Mars, Nestlé, PepsiCo and Unilever have joined a working group to support deforestation-free palm oil production in Aceh, Indonesia.

The Aceh Sustainable Palm Oil Working Group, launched earlier this month in Indonesia, aims to support the production of deforestation-free, smallholder-inclusive palm oil in the Aceh Province – a biodiversity hotspot in the north of Sumatra Island.

As part of the group, Apical, Mars Wrigley, Mondelez, Musim Mas, Nestlé, PepsiCo, Permata Group, PT SMART Tbk and Unilever will seek to align individual actions to stop deforestation in the area while continuing to produce palm oil sustainably. 

Palm oil, which is omnipresent in food companies’ supply chains, is a top economic sector for the province. But at the same time, Aceh is home to over 3.5 million hectares of rainforests and peatlands, including the critically important Leuser Ecosystem where endangered elephants, tigers, rhinos, and orangutans coexist.

Global food brands’ deforestation progress

Global brands like the ones in the group have made significant progress in reducing deforestation in their supply chains. Nestlé, for example, now reports that 80% of its volumes of palm oil, pulp and paper, beef, soy, cocoa and coffee come from conversion-free areas.

As efforts to reduce land conversion start to take hold, accelerating global warming is becoming the biggest threat to our forests: wildfires overtook agriculture as the leading cause of deforestation for the first time last year.

A fully deforestation-free supply chain still seems like a pipe dream in 2025: in fact, some of the companies most active in reducing deforestation have asked the EU to delay its Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) again, after the 12-month extension already obtained last year.

Deforestation regulation

EUDR requires European importers of forest commodities to conduct due diligence and eliminate deforestation risk among their suppliers – but these companies argue that more time is needed to prepare supply chains for compliance.

“The cocoa sector is under huge pressure: soaring prices, declining production, and origin countries still scaling up digital capacity with clear implications for the whole value chain. That’s why we are respectfully, transparently and responsibly calling for a 12-month delay — not to dilute ambition, but to enable practical, inclusive, and effective implementation,” wrote Massimiliano Di Domenico, Europe VP of Government Affairs at food company Mondelez International, last month.

In Indonesia, the Aceh Government is implementing the Aceh Sustainable Palm Oil Roadmap, which includes setting up the necessary infrastructure to make deforestation-free palm oil a reality. For instance, the government is accelerating the issuance of cultivation registration certificates and preparing provincial deforestation monitoring protocols along with a multi-stakeholder deforestation monitoring team.