Nature Alert: Letters: Big bad palm oil industry

Thursday 18 February 2010

Letters: Big bad palm oil industry

Letters: Big bad palm oil industry

Thu, 02/18/2010 | Reader's Forum The Jakarta Post

If this was not such a serious issue one could and should laugh at these claims made by the Palm Oil Producers Association (Gapki). (See "Int'l green campaigns lack evidence, say local CPO producers," the Post, Feb. 4)

The evidence that palm oil companies have caused catastrophic damage to Indonesia's environment and wildlife is both overwhelming and irrefutable. You only have to read this newspaper on a daily basis to see independent evidence of the carnage spread over Kalimantan and Sumatra by the palm oil industry.

Conversely, there is no evidence of any NGO group working in cooperation with foreign governments to smear the palm oil industry. The palm oil industry does a very good job of drawing negative attention to itself, as is evidenced by these recent ridiculous claims made by Gapki.

Sean Whyte
London

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/02/18/letters-big-bad-palm-oil-industry.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.