Nature Alert: Second largest oil palm company invests in Liberia

Saturday, 9 January 2010

Second largest oil palm company invests in Liberia

Second largest oil palm company invests in Liberia - Jan 8, 2010

The world second largest oil palm company invests in Liberia…
Vice President Joseph Boakai says the US.6 billion investment by Golden Veroleum and Gold Agri Resources Company will help the government provide the needed employment opportunities in southeastern Liberia.

Golden Agri Resources is the largest palm oil operation in Indonesia and the second largest in the world.

The Vice President said the southeastern has attractive investment opportunities and prospects.
The Vice President made the observation Tuesday when a delegation from the company called on him at his Capitol Building office to brief him about their plan to invest in Liberia’s oil palm industry.

Briefing the vice president earlier, the head of the delegation, Matt Karine, said his company’s vision in Liberia is to cultivate over 240,000 hectors of oil palm in Grand Kru, Sinoe, and Maryland counties, hoping to produce more than one million tons of palm oil per annum.
He said the company will provide direct employment for an estimated 40,000 persons, as well as develop infrastructure.

http://liberiabroadcastingsystem.com/news/article_2010_01_8_2212.html

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.