Nature Alert: Kerala Bans Palm Oil Imports To Protect Coconut Farmers

Tuesday, 22 December 2009

Kerala Bans Palm Oil Imports To Protect Coconut Farmers

December 22, 2009

Kerala Bans Palm Oil Imports To Protect Coconut Farmers

By P.Vijian

NEW DELHI, Dec 22 (Bernama) -- The Kerala state government has invoked a one-year ban on palm oil imports, primarily from Malaysia and Indonesia, via Cochin Port to protect coconut farmers' interests in the southern state.

Cochin Port Trust chairman N. Ramachandran said the ban had impacted cargo throughput at the state's premier port and port revenue.

"The state government slammed the ban as palm oil usage has led to lesser consumption of coconut oil, thus adversely affecting coconut peasants in the state," he told BERNAMA in a telephone interview Tuesday.

Pior to the ban, Ramachandran said some 100,000 to 200,000 metric tonnes of palm oil were brought in through Kochi Port.

Following the ban, the state government, controlled by the Communist Party of India (Marxist), was losing tax revenue.

"Our board members will be meeting senior state government officials soon to discuss the ban. We're quite optimistic we can resolve this ban, but I'm not in a position to give a timeline now," he added.

It is believed that coconut industry lobbyists had pressured the state government to impose the ban to protect some two million coconut farmers in Kerala, one of the largest coconut producers in India.

-- BERNAMA

http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsbusiness.php?id=463877

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.