The world’s biggest growers of palm oil say they’re stepping up efforts to produce the contentious commodity more sustainably, but consumers are unwilling to pay more for environmentally friendly supply.Production of sustainable palm oil has jumped to a record 13.6 million metric tons a year, about 20 percent of global output, according to the industry body that certifies the commodity. But only half of that is sold as sustainable oil.

When the progress towards achieving the goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development as of 2017 was assessed earlier this year, the situation had worsened most significantly for the Southeast Asia sub-region when it came to containing the loss of land area covered by natural forest.

Biofuel is simply fuel made from biological matter. Contrary to popular belief, biofuels are not a 21st century creation. It has been around since the start of the previous century. Founder of Ford Motor Company, Henry Ford even experimented with the idea of fuelling his Model T’s with ethanol.However, the discovery of fossil fuel deposits completely overhauled the landscape of energy use in the transport sector.

The negative sentiments stemming from the European Union’s (EU) ban on palm oil is exerting pressure on the crude palm oil (CPO) price. In January 2018, members of the European parliament passed votes to amend a draft law on renewable energy. Although the bill is subject to further debate by the European Council, its call-for-action towards the reduction of palm oil derived biofuels and bioliquids, is adversely affecting the price of CPO.

Despite his son’s defeat in the 2013 election, Darwan’s family remained embedded in the political establishment in both Seruyan and Central Kalimantan province. Darwan moved to a new political party, which he now chairs at the provincial level. It is an influential position for trading support in elections.

To the handful of observers who were aware of what Darwan had done, it was clear that he had abused his office to make money for his family, while inflicting considerable harm on the people he was elected to serve. The KPK investigators circled around the case for years, so why didn’t they pounce?The investigators involved, who have all since left the agency, were either unwilling or unable to comment for this article.

One night during Darwan’s second term, a farmer named Marjuansyah, who lived in the village the bupati had grown up in, had an unsettling encounter with the police. For two years he had nursed a small patch of oil palm east of Lake Sembuluh, and hundreds of saplings were now close to bearing fruit. But his land also fell within an area licensed to one of the companies Darwan’s son Ruswandi had sold to Triputra. The police told Marjuansyah that they had come on company business.