Malaysian Prime Minister: No clearing of forests for oil palm plantations
Let’s just hope the PM’s announcement is not simply a question of ‘why cut down our forests when we can take Indonesia’s instead?’. Keep a close eye on this one… ~ Rich
KUALA LUMPUR: The government will not allow the clearing of forest areas for any new oil palm plantations, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said yesterday.
He said this was avoid accusations being made by some western parties that the opening of oil palm plantations was destroying the forest and ecosystems.
“We realise there are campaigns being carried out by some non-governmental organisations in the west to spread negative news about us as they think that the oil palm plantations are a result of forest clearing which is also endangering the existence of orang utan,” he told reporters here.
Abdullah, who is also Finance Minister, said the existing oil palm plantations were enough to cater to current demands and there was no need for the opening of new plantations at the moment.
There are currently 4.3 million hectares of oil palm plantation land in the country.
“We don’t have to reduce the protected forests to increase new oil palm plantations. We have proof. With more effective management of the plantations and new technologies, production can go up by 30 per cent,” he said after chairing the meeting of the cabinet committee on the competitiveness of the country’s oil palm industry.
He said continued research and development would also result in value added products in the industry.
On the expansion of the biofuel industry, he said: “This will depend on the investors, on whether they want to produce palm oil as a fuel material. The high price of world crude oil will be a major determinant on whether they produce oil palm-based fuel.”
On whether he was concerned with the increasing palm oil price, he said: “As far as we are concerned, price of oil (palm oil) is our wealth. As for cooking oil, it is a controlled food item.”
- Bernama
Source: http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Wednesday/National/2276540/Article/index_html
July 1st, 2008 at 9:48 pm
The PM’s statement is meaningless:
A) Malaysia’s PM doesn’t control the State Governments over these issues. CM Taib from Sarawak already said that the PM statement is a non-issue in Sarawak. Done!
B) The new “policy” applies to “new” plantation developments only but vast tracts of forest (millions of hectares) have already been allocated for plantation development in the past years. Plantation companies are busily clearing away forests to fulfill the governmental plantation targets and deforestation will go on in Malaysia.
C) It’s easy for the State Governments to turn a forest into “non-forest”: the State Ex Com can de-gazette Permanent Forest Reserves overnight, declare it land for agricultural development and the bulldozers will move in the next day to day away with what ever forest is left after decades of unsustainable logging. States are now expected to consult the National Forestry Council over degazettement of forest reserves, but the NFC is a non-transparent body that is ultimately incapable of stopping the States.
D) After the tsunami in 2004, the PM said that all mangrove forests would be spared from development and be restored. But fish and shrimp ponds and other businesses keep clearing the mangroves all the same. Just like the “Save the Mangroves” policy, the PM statement on oil palm is not, and is unlikely to be translated in binding laws.
E) The statement doesn’t apply to Malaysian companies operating outside of Malaysia…
F) Key data on deforestation and oil palm expansion in Malaysia are treated as though they are part of the Official Secrets Act. The government is the only supplier of such data to international institutions, such as FAO and the Malaysian data supplied are notoriously unreliable. For example, Malaysia reported to FAO that it had not lost any primary forest between 1990 and 2005.
If that was true, then where did the million of tonnes of timber exported by Malaysia during those years come from? From deforestation for oil palm projects? No, Malaysia has never cleared tropical forests for oil palm Malaysians have been told time and time again. Did the timber come from illegal imports from Indonesia? No, that problem doesn’t exist either…
“We have proof” says the PM. Where is the proof?