Nature Alert: RI replaces Malaysia as world`s biggest CPO producer

Tuesday, 24 November 2009

RI replaces Malaysia as world`s biggest CPO producer

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Bogor, W Java (ANTARA News) - Indonesia has developed into the world`s biggest crude palm oil (CPO) producer, replacing Malaysia, Amin Tamin Subandrio, deputy to the research and technology minister said here on Tuesday.

He said Indonesia had since last year replaced Malaysia as the world`s biggest CPO producer. Now Indonesia`s CPO production had reached 19.2 million tons per annum, exceeding Malaysia`s 17.8 million tons.

Subandrio said the fact was "interesting" because Indonesia was able to become the number one producer two years sooner than previously projected.

"It turns out that we achieved the target in 2008," he said.

In the meantime, despite price fluctuations in the world market, the volumes of CPO exports rose to 12.5 million tons in 2008 with plantations covering 8.127 million hectares.

Indonesia`s plantation productivity reaches 3.7 million tons per hectare, the deputy minister said.

The increase in national CPO production was having an impact on national economic growth. The oil palm industry now accounted for 4.5 percent of the national gross domestic product with its foreign exchange contribution to national income amounting to Rp3.5 billion.

"Palm oil industries play significant roles in the national economy. This industry influence much economic growth and people`s welfare," he added.(*)

http://www.antara.co.id/en/news/1259066046/ri-replaces-malaysia-as-worlds-biggest-cpo-producer

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.