Jakarta – Environmental group Greenpeace urged Indonesia's election watchdog Thursday to investigate funding for political parties linked to deforestation ahead of parliamentary polls in April.

About 40 Greenpeace activists carried a banner saying, "No Forests for Elections – Stop Deforestation" in front of the election committee (KPU) office in Jakarta.

"We call on the KPU to check which parties use funding from deforestation," Greenpeace Southeast Asia forest campaigner Bustar Maitar told AFP.

Maitar said there was a "strong link" between political funding and deforestation, although he provided no evidence.

"We fear that the funding comes at the cost of big companies getting the rights to destroy the forests. Many leaders of the political parties are government officials," he said.

Greenpeace said Indonesia, the world's biggest producer of palm oil, was destroying its rain forests faster than any other major forested country.

Tropical forest destruction is responsible for nearly a fifth of global greenhouse gases blamed for climate change, making Indonesia the world's third biggest greenhouse gas emitter behind the United States and China.

The forestry ministry was unavailable to comment on the allegations.