Palm Oil Face Bias From Western NGOs Despite Benefits

From Minggu Simon Lhasa JOHANNESBURG (South Africa), Dec 8 (Bernama) -- There is a bias against palm oil despite it having a lion's share of the global oils and fats market, alongside being a productive industry, says Malaysian Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities, Bernard Dompok. He said a lot of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in western countries did not like palm oil and accused the industry of being responsible for deforestation which was untrue. "Malaysia has been a very responsible country in respect of the cultivation of oil palm. "We made a commitment at the Rio Summit in Brazil in 1992, that 50 per cent of our land would be under forest cover, and today this is the case with 56 per cent of it," Dompok said a "live" interview with CNBC Africa Wednesday evening. He added that Malaysia had about 5.85 million hectares of land under oil palm and had reached the tail end in its quest for more. "There just isn't any more land as we are committed to having more than half of what is in the country, under forest cover," he said. Dompok said his trip to Africa this time for the Palm Oil Trade & Seminar, which also took him to South Africa and Nigeria, is to ensure the right information flow to consumers while emphasising Malaysia's commitment to observing the 3P principles of the industry, namely, People, Planet and Profit. Asked if Malaysia is willing to undertake collaborations with African partners in need of financial and technical support, he said the country can certainly assist those with suitable land for oil palm cultivation. "Whatever we have learnt over the years can be passed on to farmers and those interested in cultivating oil palm," he said, adding, in South Africa, he saw more potential in downstream manufacturing activities. Earlier in the day, while officiating the Malaysia-Africa Palm Oil Trade Fair & Seminar 2011 here, Dompok said the palm oil industry had survived many challenges and stood strong amid all the negative perceptions as well as allegations levelled at it by many quarters from all over the world. He also highlighted Malaysia's efforts in terms of limiting green house emissions and also conservation. Malaysia he said, had initiated studies on the life cycle assessment of the oil palm, to help identify carbon emissions and institute measures to mitigate the effect. Dompok pointed out that in terms of the conservation of wildlife and biodiversity, the government had pledged RM20 million towards the Malaysian Palm Oil Wildlife Conservation Fund. He said there has also been set aside, 100,000 hectares of rainforest in an area of 300,000 hectares of contiguous forest zones in Sabah, as a mega wildlife sanctuary. -- BERNAMA