{"id":15097,"date":"2019-03-20T09:08:26","date_gmt":"2019-03-20T01:08:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=15097"},"modified":"2019-03-20T09:29:44","modified_gmt":"2019-03-20T01:29:44","slug":"the-green-war-oil-palm-vs-forests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=15097","title":{"rendered":"The Green War \u2013 Oil Palm vs Forests"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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By Andrew Sebastian<\/h6>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Here\u2019s the landscape of the debate – the humble oil palm is actually an amazingly versatile plant! According to the Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC), palm oil is present in approximately 71% of food products, in 24% of consumer goods and in 5% of energy usage.<\/p>

Malaysia is the second largest palm oil producer in the world, after Indonesia. Our top two \u00a0clients is the EU and India respectively and the annual revenue generated from the palm oil industry is reported to be 6 per cent of the national GDP in 2017 to the tune of RM 77.8 billion!<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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\"About 40% of oil palm growers in Malaysia comprise small holders numbering 650,000. In addition, about 3 million people in Malaysia earn their livelihood from the palm oil industry\".<\/h4>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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About 40% of oil palm growers in Malaysia comprise small holders numbering 650,000. In addition, about 3 million people in Malaysia earn their livelihood from the palm oil industry.<\/p>

On 7 Jan 2018, the EU voted for Palm oil-based biofuels to be completely banned by 2021! However, this was not the first time the palm oil industry was subject to scrutiny and challenges by the EU, citing poor environmental record and rampant deforestation. This naturally sparked a heated exchange and commentaries across the industry, continents and various groups, both for and against such a unilateral move.<\/p>

Now let\u2019s look at the other spectrum of the argument, of which I am admittedly a little biased. Malaysia has a total land area of 32.98 million hectares. Presently, approximately 18.11 million hectares or 54.9% of the land area are still (reportedly) covered with forest and \u2018green cover\u2019 with a total oil palm planted area spanning 5.81 million hectares.<\/p>

\"\"<\/p>

In a nutshell \u2013 since the 1960s \u2013 oil palm has seen rapid growth in terms of land use, both dominating and devastating lowlands forest landscapes, riparian zones, as well as taking over from rubber and other monoculture estates in some cases. Just fly into any of our cities and drive in any direction, you will know what I mean. National parks and critical natural landscapes are now mostly \u2018islands\u2019 with little or no connectivity. Forest \u2018reserves\u2019 in many states are now being actively degazetted. First comes the timber tycoons and next, their plantation counterparts \u2013 leaving Malaysia with barely a hint of a secondary forest that should be left to regenerate into mature forests in the future! This smells more like greed and an industry left too long to plunder our country\u2019s natural wealth with little independent oversight and monitoring.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>

The question therefore to the industry is why the need to expand oil palm acreage even further? Just as in the case of the humble rubber tree, don\u2019t we have enough knowhow to increase production per acre with a more robust hybrid? In fact, oil palm acreage should be shrinking! Diversification of business models and leaving forests intact and connected in plantation landscapes should now be a major voluntary industry goal with governmental support. \u00a0<\/p>

So, what about the EU ban that\u2019s looming?
\u00a0<\/h3>

\"\"\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>

Minister of Primary Industries, Teresa Kok, recently remarked that she hopes all existing palm oil traders can achieve 100 per cent Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) certification by December 31, 2019! As of September 2018, she lamented, only 20% are registered! In the meantime \u2013 as you read this \u2013 forested areas are being converted to oil palm estates just along the Jerantut-Kuala Tahan road, as you drive into Taman Negara (reportedly one of the world\u2019s oldest rainforests)!<\/p>

The industry simply has to do better, over and beyond \u2013 to undo their past and meet the expectations and assuage the somewhat bias views of the EU. They need to come up with serious measures to protect and enhance our natural ecosystems. They need to understand fully and respect the role of our natural landscapes. In what shape and form these resolutions are made – let\u2019s have a focussed conversation and a meaningful plan that will carry the weight of political will. Our environmental future and that of our children and all things naturally Malaysian, depends on it! (logging companies\/rubber plantations, you are not excluded from this conversation too!). \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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The views expressed by the writer here are solely his and do not reflect that of NNN or the Malaysian National News Agency (BERNAMA)<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Andrew Sebastian Here\u2019s the landscape of the debate – the humble oil palm is actually an amazingly versatile plant! According to the Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC), palm oil is present in approximately 71% of food products, in 24% of consumer goods and in 5% of energy usage. Malaysia is the second largest palm […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":15110,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[285,289],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15097"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}