MALAYSIA, INDONESIA COUNTER GREEN CONCERNS OVER PALM
05.28.07 - Leído 90 veces. Enviar esta notaNaveen Thukral
Malaysia and Indonesia, the world’s largest palm-oil producers, agreed on Friday to take measures to counter environmental concerns they said were
KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA; May 28, 2007.- Malaysia’s commodities minister and Indonesia’s farm minister said they had set up a technical group to mount a pro-industry campaign in Europe, the second-largest consumer of palm oil and the strongest source of demand for palm-based biofuel.
“We are talking about allegations on environment, deforestation, climate change, biodiversity, that a lot of orang-utans are being slaughtered as a result of opening up of plantation land,” Malaysia’s Peter Chin said.
“These are the areas where Malaysia will do its part and Indonesia will do its part to answer. Many of these allegations are not true,” he told a joint news conference.
Palm plantations cover about 4 million hectares in Malaysia and 6 million hectares in Indonesia. Indonesian Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono said his country would expand that area to around 8 million hectares by 2010.
Friends of the Earth says almost 90 percent of orang-utan habitat has now disappeared and if the destruction continues, Asia’s only great ape could become extinct in 12 years.
Greenpeace says Indonesia had the fastest pace of deforestation in the world between 2000-2005, with an area of forest equivalent to 300 soccer pitches destroyed every hour.
But the Malaysian Palm Oil Council, which represents producers, said green groups had misrepresented the facts and were sowing doubts about palm oil in the minds of consumers.
It estimated that the environmental campaign had cut palm oil consumption for electricity generation in Europe by 500,000 tonnes last year, or roughly half of the previous year’s demand.
“We don’t like our oil to be damaged in terms of reputation or image for no good reason,” council Chief Executive Yusof Basiron told reporters after the news conference.
“Obviously it is not tolerable, especially since this is our most important commodity. We have to correct this image.” The two ministers said Malaysia and Indonesia would hold a series of seminars in Europe to kickstart the campaign, which would begin in June.
Malaysia’s Synergy Drive, the world’s largest plantation company, has already launched a campaign to prevent a consumer backlash against its business.
(Reuters)
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