Environmentalists have urged Indonesia, the world’s top palm oil grower, to follow the lead of rival producer Malaysia by allowing plantation and land maps to be made public to help fight deforestation and forest fires. Industry watchdog the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) published members’ land maps for peninsular Malaysia and the state of Sarawak on Thursday after being given legal go-ahead to do so by the Malaysian government. Palm oil is the world’s most widely used edible oil, found in everything from margarine to biscuits, but the industry has come under scrutiny in recent years from green activists and consumers, who have blamed it for forest loss and fires and exploitation of workers. Many palm oil companies have also been found to not know the origin of their palm oil. Indonesia and Malaysia have long been urged by green groups to publish maps of where companies have been given land for palm oil plantations to allow third parties to better monitor forests and pledges on deforestation made by growers.

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