Nature Alert: Conference on palm oil to draw over 400

Monday, 14 April 2008

Conference on palm oil to draw over 400

Monday April 14, 2008 The StarOnline, Malaysia

Conference on palm oil to draw over 400

KOTA KINABALU: More than 400 delegates are expected to attend the two-day International Palm Oil Sustainability Conference that begins here today.

Organised by Malaysian Palm Oil Promotion Council (MPOC), the conference will be opened by Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Peter Chin Fah Kui.

The conference is expected to address several important issues with regard to palm oil and other edible oils.

These include providing the Malaysian perspective to sustainable palm oil production, the need for certification of the global oils and fats industry, opportunities in biomass to liquids from palm biomass, development of oil palm plantations on peat land, governments' role in wildlife and conservation care and the palm oil industry, the life cycle assessment approach to illustrate palm oil's sustainability advantages and an update on the food, fuel and energy debate.

There will also be a special session devoted to the orang utan conservation in Malaysia and its current status as well as prospects.

As part of its efforts to highlight the palm oil industry's efforts in adhering to Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) and leading to sustainable production of palm oil, the MPOC had invited several foreign journalists on a familiarisation programme to Sandakan ahead of the conference here.
The journalists were also briefed on orang utan and wildlife conservation in Malaysia.

MPOC hopes that at the end of their two-day visit, they would have gained considerable understanding of the various GAP and wildlife conservation efforts being undertaken by Malaysia's palm oil industry. – Bernama

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.