Nature Alert: KL and Jakarta plan carbon trading for oil palm industry

Wednesday 29 April 2009

KL and Jakarta plan carbon trading for oil palm industry

Wednesday April 29, 2009 The Star, Malaysia

KOTA KINABALU: Malaysia and Indonesia are exploring the possibility of adopting carbon trading system for its oil palm industry.

Primary Industries and Commodities Minister Tan Sri Bernard Dompok said the two countries were establishing a focal point to work out details relating to carbon trading for the industry.

“We are committed to addressing the issues and concerns raised by the international community,” he told reporters at a joint press conference with Indonesian Agriculture Minister Dr Anton Apriyantono at the end of the three-day fourth joint committee meeting on Bilateral Cooperation on Commodities here yesterday.

Carbon credit is a system that allows a company or country which reduces its carbon dioxide emissions below a targeted level to sell the extra reduction as credit to a company or country which has not met the target level.

The meeting also agreed to the establishment of focal points to coordinate work under the Reduced Emission from Deforestation and Degradation.

Both countries would also work together to address barriers to palm oil trade, they said in a joint communique.

The meeting also agreed for more cooperation in research and development initiatives for cocoa; while Indonesia has agreed to assist Malaysia in diversifying the use of pepper to include non-food applications such as in traditional medicine.

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/4/29/nation/3792000&sec=nation

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.