Samsung’s phones are not the only thing catching on fire.  A Samsung subsidiary announced last week that it will be forming a joint venture with a Korean-Indonesian agribusiness company called Korindo, which was recently exposed for burning and clearing tens of thousands of hectares of pristine rainforest in Indonesia for palm oil and timber production.  

Samsung can’t handle another PR nightmare right now, as it’s working to build back its reputation following the recall of 2.5 million phones and as its CEO stands trial for massive corruption scandals in South Korea. The last thing Samsung needs is to be caught up in a scandal over palm oil forest destruction and species extinction.

We have to act fast. The dry season is starting up in Indonesia right now, which is when rogue palm oil companies like Korindo set fires to the forest, so we must convince Samsung to take immediate action.

Korindo has already been steadily losing major global palm oil and timber customers over the controversy which has forced Korindo to put a temporary halt on forest clearance, but it can start the bulldozers again any day now. The 750 square kilometers of forests remaining on its plantations are at great risk — that’s an area the size of New York City.

Korindo has systematically cleared and burned precious rainforest in the Indonesian provinces of Papua and North Maluku, home to hundreds of indigenous communities and threatened wildlife like the adorable tree kangaroo and the colorful bird-of-paradise.

But if Korindo faces the loss of a major strategic business partner with a global brand like Samsung, it will send a clear message that deforestation is bad for business, and Korindo will be forced to call off the bulldozers once and for all.

For years, Korindo has been able to get away with clearing vast areas of forest because it is an unknown company that is not directly exposed to consumers.  But the partnership with Samsung brings new opportunities to demand an end to these abuses. From smartphones to appliances to TVs, Samsung products are used every day around the globe. Consumers have a right to know that their purchases are not financing Samsung’s destruction of tropical forests and human rights abuses. 

Samsung is no stranger to conflict palm oil itself -- a recent field investigation by a group of Korean lawyers uncovered extensive human rights violations and environmental destruction on its palm oil plantations in Sumatra, Indonesia.  The investigation found Samsung to be taking land from the indigenous communities who have lived there for centuries, diverting the river to irrigate the palm trees while leaving the surrounding communities with a severe water shortage, utilizing child labor, and even bribing neighbors to spy on one another to suppress community opposition.