Nature Alert: Malaysia's IJM Plantations to go big in Indonesia

Monday, 11 February 2008

Malaysia's IJM Plantations to go big in Indonesia

The Jakarta Post
February 11, 2008

Malaysia's IJM Plantations to go big in Indonesia

PETALING JAYA, Malaysia (The Star/ANN): Plantation firm IJM Plantations Bhd (IJMP) has transformed into one of the fastest growing oil palm plantation companies in Malaysia with strategic oil palm-related investments in Indonesia and India, The Star reported Monday.

Within a short span of two years, the group doubled its plantation hectarage to about 60,000 hectares and will be on the lookout for suitable land bank for oil palm cultivation, particularly in Indonesia.

IJMP is also embarking on the oil palm upstream and downstream operations with the Godrej Group in India.

Managing director and chief executive officer Velayuthan Tan said that IJMP's immediate focus would be to develop its newly acquired 30,000 ha of land in East Kalimantan with high-yield oil palm trees.

While the group is busy scouting for more land in the vicinity, he said: "We plan to invest about RM600 million within the next five years to develop the existing areas (in Indonesia) inclusive of processing facilities."

Between November 2006 and June 2007, IJMP acquired three companies in East Kalimantan with a combined area of 32,634 ha.

Tan said: "The acquisition of these companies is part of our long-term strategy to expand the operations in Indonesia.

"The identified sites are strategically located and fit the group's plan of enhancing its existing infrastructure in Sabah."

Currently, of IJMP's total land bank, about 27,000 ha are planted.

Tan said the group's investment in Indonesia was significant as "it represents our move to continue maintaining fresh fruit bunches (FFB) production growth in IJMP through the doubling of hectarage in Indonesia." (****) -->

Hall of Shame for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the Palm Oil Industry.

Nothing can prepare one for the sight of the systematic extermination of orangutans by the government of Indonesia.

Look at the photos and news articles on these pages in the context of a statement the President made to the media on 10th December 2007.

“In the last 35 years about 50,000 orangutans are estimated to have been lost as their habitats shrank. If this continues, this majestic creature will likely face extinction by 2050,” President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said at the launch of an orangutan conservation plan at the climate talks in Bali.

“The fate of the orangutan is a subject that goes to the heart of sustainable forests … To save the orangutan we have to save the forest.”

Statements like these are most welcome, but unless backed up by action, such words fall on deaf ears within the Ministry of Forestry....who are busy granting licences to cut down the very forests the President says they should protect!

When you think you are to busy to help, please could you reflect for a moment on .........

The following extract refers to environmental problems in general. I just hope you find it as thought provoking and relevant to orangutans as I have.

"This is such a shocking and unpalatable fact that most people deny it, or they just don't want to think about it. They believe as individuals, they can do little about it, so push it to the back of their minds. But I can't do that.

When something has to be done, we need to do it. It doesn't matter how big the challenge is or how hard the solution; if I know something is wrong, and I am in a position to help, I will do my best to make it right." Duncan Bannatyne, successful British businessman.