Some of the world’s biggest consumer brands may have sourced palm oil from illegally deforested land on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, according to an investigation by the Rainforest Action Network.

Three banks majority-owned by the state – Bank Mandiri, Bank Rakyat Indonesia and Bank Negara Indonesia – have ploughed billions of dollars into an industry that is systematically undermining the rule of law and efforts to repair Indonesia’s reputation as a climate villain in the wake of catastrophic forest fires.

Timber from illegal palm oil concessions has been certified as ‘legal’ under Indonesia’s state forestry certification scheme, according to a new report from two NGOs.

The company at the heart of a controversial palm oil development in Papua has claimed that the provincial and district governments encouraged it to commit a criminal offence because they were “impatient” to see the project begin.

An investigation by the US-based non-profit Rainforest Action Network has found evidence of illegal clearance of critically endangered Sumatran elephant habitat in the Leuser Ecosystem, in the far west of Indonesia.

The son of a local parliament chief has been named a suspect over illegal land clearing in the Singkil Swamp Wildlife Reserve, a protected area in Indonesia that is home to the densest population of Sumatran orangutans.

Illegalities by palm oil companies are a significant factor in the widespread conflicts between them and rural communities in Indonesian Borneo, according to a recent paper published in Applied Geography.

Pulp and paper giant April has carved a three kilometre canal through carbon-rich peatlands in Sumatra in violation of Indonesian government regulations intended to curb greenhouse gas emissions and prevent another annual return of catastrophic forest fires.

Analysis of plantations in Riau Province, Indonesia, suggests that the majority of oil palm plantations are operating without permission from the Ministry and Environment and Forestry.

The province of Aceh, Indonesia, lost more than 4,000 hectares of forest in the first half of 2016, largely due to “legally questionable, if not downright illegal” palm oil expansion, according to a report on Mongabay.

A decision by Indonesian police to drop a criminal investigation into the use of fire to clear forest was fundamentally flawed and contrary to the evidence, according to an investigation carried out by an NGO network.

The Mount Leuser National Park Rescue Coalition have urged President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to take immediate action to stop widespread illegal logging and forest conversion in the national park.

More than half of palm oil mills in the Sumatran province may be linked to illegal plantations, according the chairman of a parliamentary commission.

An alliance of Indonesian human rights NGOs is taking the provincial police in Riau, Sumatra, to the Central Information Commission over its refusal to disclose the reasons for dropping cases against 15 plantation companies accused of starting illegal forest fires.

A coalition of organisations in Indonesia has released drone footage showing evidence of the criminal use of fire to clear forests, within an allegedly illegal oil palm concession.