Documentary on Sustainability of Malaysian Palm Oil Industry

[karnavinash]

Monoculture hurts each one of us.. Its not only about the absorbing of green house gases by the palm trees... but the question is about the biodiversity of flora and fauna living in those tropical forests.... whom, we all are interdependent upon each other.

[mrsmallmedia]

yo winmac..i totally agree with you man...why it is always palm oil to be attacked...what about the soy and other rapeseeds....!!!

[winmac80]

powerofmarine and idruide, the video that is shown are true and real life practice by the oil palm industry. rather than shouting bs and green wash, you guys should seek right info on palm oil. oil palm is being planted on agricultural land. it is a right for the people to harvest their land. why do you guys keep denying them this right? what about rapeseed and soy? arent those land deforested too? palmoil can produce 6 times more oil than soy per ha. land used. so why only palm being targetted?

[powerofmarine9090]

This is such a bullshit documentary from all this palm oil companies.Such a lies should put the fact about palm oil it causes so much damage to the environment.

[ltmikepowell]

Opps, Brazil has just deforested some land for soy oil demands. Maybe we should criticize them as well. And do I heard the cry of African slave labors' suffering in the cocoa butter project?

[mdkril]

Is this base on a fact?

[ldruide]

Typical greenwash . Pure propaganda! Totally wrong information . Destroying the richest biodiversity Boycott oil palm products and biofuels

[ltmikepowell]

Do other alternatives so different from palm oil may I ask? Do those alternatives land-saving?

The only thing right now is beware of the same mistake that the west made in 70's and 80's from soy oil "benefits". And I got the feeling that those crusaders are using the same, dirty tactics by the soy oil members in 70's and 80's.

[malaysianpalmoil]

@ldruide we have more land under forests than those countries who cry foul on palm oil industries. we too, have undeveloped lands gazetted for agriculture, and also enough lands for wildlife conservations. in fact the 50% forest reserves agreed at the Rio summit is still being honored and will always be. we have a rich biodiversity and for whom are we keeping this for? european kids who might not see live animals? why dont these countries re-forest and restore the long gone biodiversity?

[ldruide]

Malaysia's deforestation rate is accelerating faster than that of any other tropical country in the world, according to data from the United Nations. Analysis of figures from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) shows that Malaysia's annual deforestation rate jumped almost 86 percent between the 1990-2000 period and 2000-2005. While FAO says that forests still cover more than 60 percent of the country, only 11.6 percent of these forests are considered pristine.

[ldruide]

On paper, Malaysia has probably one of the best rainforest protection policies in developing Asia, but in practice logging still carries on as it always has. The majority of Malaysia's remaining forests are managed for timber production, and each state is empowered to formulate forest policy independently. These past two decades, sustainable forest management has been non-existent.Peninsular Malaysia's primary forests are mostly gone, though some magnificent forest still exists in Taman Negara

[malaysianpalmoil]

@Idruide, while you conjure facts and numbers as opposed to the UN's report, Malaysia is recognized to have one of the best rainforest protection policies. deforestation through timber industries is known but we have sustainable timber practice and logging areas are identified. seems you have problems with timber industry, why attack palm plantations where we have planted the logged over lands with palm oil which is a better economical and environmental alternative. barking the wrong tree?

[ldruide]

Despite the government's pro-environment overtones, the heavy-handed Malaysian government tends to side with development more than conservation. As of 2004, no court had ever ruled favorably in a major case on behalf of the native forest peoples displaced by rainforest destruction.

[ldruide]

Malaysia is the world's largest producer of palm oil, and many of the largest producers have strong political ties. Promoted by incentives which give plantation owners a 100 percent tax exemption for 10 years, thousands of hectares of forest have been cleared for palm oil and other types of plantations. While plantations on cleared and degraded forest lands are ecologically and economically beneficial, clearing natural forest for plantations results in increased erosion and biodiversity loss.

[ldruide]

(12/17/2009) Malaysia, the country with the fastest rate of greenhouse gas emissions growth since 1990 among middle and upper income countries, will allow logging to proceed in a contested rainforest area in Sarawak, on the island of Borneo.(12/12/2009) The world's largest user of palm oil, Unilever, has suspended its $32.6 million contract with the Indonesian group Sinar Mas after an independent audit proved that Sinar Mas is involved in the destruction of rainforest, reports Reuters.

[ldruide]

(11/04/2009) Oil palm expansion is threatening Borneo's rarest wild cats, reports a new study based on three years of fieldwork and 17,000 camera trap nights. Studying cats in five locations each with different environments in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, four of five cat species are threatened by habitat loss due to palm oil plantations.(10/21/2009) Sabah's Minister of Environment, Datuk Masidi Manjun, called on the palm oil industry to stop polluting rivers and work with NGOs to save wildlife.

[winmac80]

you forgot the main point of the palm oil industry - to eradicate poverty for the local, enhance the economy of the country hence improving it for the people and also a good candidate to help overcome the global food crisis. what else do you suggest to have a similar profitable and environmentally beneficial alternatives as compared to the palm oil?

[ldruide]

I wish everything was as rosy as you industry propagandists want us to believe. On October 19th 2009, Plantation Industries Minister Tan Sri Bernard Dompok told parliament that oil palm harvesters and rubber tappers are living above Malaysia's national poverty line, according to a story in the Malaysian Insider. But now representatives of the workers are saying."It is a blatant lie and it has been going on for a long time." M. Sugumaran, Coordinator for the Plantation Workers Support Group

[ldruide]

according to a study by the Plantation Workers Support Group the average wage of oil palm workers was 700 RM (207 US dollars), below Malaysia's poverty line.The oil palm industry frequently makes statements that the industry has helped to alleviate poverty in Malaysia. The industry has had difficulty finding enough workers due to the low wages and rough working conditions. Many of the workers in Malaysia's oil palm industry are immigrants from Indonesia some of whom are working illegally

[ldruide]

Recently the UK banned an advertisement from the Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC) because of misleading and unsubstantiated statements, including that the industry was 'sustainable' and contributed to the alleviation of poverty, especially amongst rural populations'.

[ldruide]

Demand will probably be around 240 Mt in 2050, nearly twice today's total. This need not be at the expense of forest; oil palm planted on anthropogenic grassland could supply all the oil required for edible purposes in 2050. However, biofuel demand might greatly exceed that for edible use, and the interchangeability of the major oils, for edible and biofuel uses, means that this demand will drive oil palm expansion, whether or not palm oil is actually used for biodiesel.

[ldruide]

Large-scale plantation economies form part of the story of the erosion and appropriation of indigenous peoples subsistence base and territories and the alteration of their indigenous land tenure systems. The reports of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous peoples, has indicated that the loss of lands of indigenous peoples occurred through colonization, nationalization and privatization of their lands

[ldruide]

Clearly, the main reason for the dramatic expansion of oil palm plantations, notwithstanding their adverse impacts on people and the environment, is that these provide big profits to domestic and international plantation owners and investors. These mega-profits are ensured by cheap labour, low cost of sale or rent of land, ineffective environmental controls, high demand, support from multilateral and bilateral donors and a short growth cycle.

[ldruide]

It is without any doubt that the growth of the oil palm sub-sector has resulted into economic benefits, especially for the key players. However, it comes with serious social and environmental costs which adversely impact on indigenous peoples, forest-dwellers and the tropical rainforests. Out of the 216 million people in Indonesia it is estimated that 100 million, depend mainly on forests Large areas of forest lands traditionally used by indigenous peoples have already been expropriated.

[ldruide]

Oil palm plantations have destroyed our source of livelihood and made us much poorer" said a spokesman for the Penan. "A lot of people are hungry every day because our forest has been destroyed."The Penan, with the help of Survival International, an NGO that works to protect the rights of tribal peoples, have been fighting to prevent the forests they rely on for food from being cut down to make way for palm oil plantations

[dennisjj2006]

good info