22/11/2005 (Philadelphia Inquirer) -  In the heart of Borneo, home to one of the world's last remaining expanses of intact rain forest, Hermas Rintik Maring, an avid conservationist, marvels at the life within the vast canopies of jungle green that for centuries have made this tropical island vital to the health of the region.
At the same time, he says he fears this pristine forest could fall to the whine of chain saws and the rumble of bulldozers clearing land for what has been billed as the world's largest palm oil plantation.
The project, brokered by the Indonesian government in Jakarta, could affect as many as five million acres of Borneo's forest - an area slightly smaller than the state of Vermont - near Indonesia's 1,250-mile-long border with Malaysia. Officials hope China will finance the project on the island, which is divided between Indonesia and Malaysia.
Indonesian officials claim the plantation could bring the area a half a million jobs directly related to the industry and 500,000 more in spin-off jobs in schools, health care and other services. It could produce more than 10 million tons of crude palm oil a year, they said, worth about $4.6 billion. Chinese officials said a project covering 5 million acres could cost up to $10 billion.
But environmentalists such as Hermas, 28, a field officer for the Worldwide Fund for Nature in Indonesia, worry that without careful planning the project could destroy Borneo's profusion of plants, insects and animals.
"It would be one of man's great mistakes," said Hermas, his eyes sweeping across a panorama of olive-colored forests and blue-gray mountains from a clearing 1,800 feet high. "It would be unforgivable."
The plan is still in its infancy. It envisions a series of large plantations owned by private companies and linked by roads and palm oil mills. Exactly where everything would go has not been decided. That lack of clarity has prompted growing controversy.
Palm oil, used in the age of the Egyptian pharaohs, is fast becoming one of the world's leading vegetable oils. The antioxidant-rich oil, squeezed from a reddish fruit about the size of a large plum, is used in products as diverse as chocolate, potato chips, detergent and lipstick. It is now being touted as a bio-fuel - a clean alternative fuel - as crude oil prices soar.
Earlier this year, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono visited East and West Kalimantan, two Indonesian provinces on Borneo that border the Malaysian part of the island. He met with governors and mayors, who appealed for roads, jobs and resources to combat rampant illegal logging.
Yudhoyono, a retired general and former security minister, has long wanted to bring investment to the border area.
"Security and stability will be better," he told Tempo, an Indonesian news magazine, in an August interview. "Palm oil and agricultural cultivation will raise incomes, absorb the workforce and increase regional taxes. Meanwhile, we will be able to keep on nurturing the sense of nationhood and being Indonesian."
On a state visit to Beijing in July, he spoke to President Hu Jintao about helping to develop the border area.
The Chinese said that though their government is generally keen to invest in Indonesia, especially in oil, natural gas, minerals and infrastructure, agricultural projects such as palm oil plantations require careful study. Environmental concerns, competing land claims, and conflicting viewpoints of local governments could slow progress, said Tan Weiwen, economic and commercial counselor at the Chinese Embassy in Jakarta.
But, he said, he sees opportunity in a growing demand for palm oil in China, the world's third-largest importer of the commodity, and the world at large.
"Where there is sugar," he said, "the ants will come."
The area that environmentalists call the heart of Borneo is home to 14 of the island's 16 major rivers. Six miles downstream from Betung Kerihun is Danau Sentarum, a 325,000-acre necklace of lakes that nurture several species found only on Borneo, including the bekantan monkey and arwana fish. Indigenous peoples live and fish on the lakes. Logging the forests would start a chain reaction of erosion and silt buildup that would destroy the area's water ecosystem, environmentalists say.