Deforestation and Palm Oil: A Ray of Hope

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by: Deforestation Watch
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Word Count: 757
Date: Tue, 20 Apr 2010 Time: 5:41 AM
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Jason Ray was a ray of hope and joy on the University of North Carolina campus. He performed the role of Rameses (the University mascot) for 3 years, hauling his giant ram's head costume to sporting events one day and to children's hospitals the next. He was an Eagle Scout, Honor Student, Black Belt in Karate, Lead Singer in a Rock Band and life held much promise for this energetic and compassionate boy.

Unfortunately, in March 2007, whilst with his team for a basketball tournament, Jason was struck by a car. His family watched and waited at the hospital but the 21 years old Jason Kendall Ray succumbed to his injuries and died.

His story doesn't end there, however. Jason had filed paperwork two years earlier to donate organs and tissue upon his death - and that act of compassion saved the lives of four people and helped dozens of others. A young man in the prime of his life, with everything to live for, was concerned for the well being of others and acted on that altruistic concern. Those individuals who were helped and their families are deeply grateful for the life of this young man who thought of others.

Now contrast the actions of Jason with the actions of "environmental" NGOs like Greenpeace and the Friends of the Earth. All 3 believed that they were doing good. All 3 acted for their cause. However, where the paths of Jason and Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth diverge is that Jason's organ and tissue donations reflects a compassionate heart based on an obviously true heart-felt altruistic or religious belief whilst the latter "environmental" NGO's actions against palm oil appears to be completely devoid of empathy and compassion - empathy and compassion for the plight of smallholders who depend on the cultivation of palm oil to eke out a living!

Contrary to popular opinion, 43% of palm oil in Indonesia is produced by smallholders whilst in Malaysia smallholders account for 40% of total palm oil production. Most of the Malaysian smallholders are settlers participating in a government sponsored poverty eradication scheme called FELDA . Their farms are located in areas that are far removed from the habitat of orang utans. Having uprooted themselves from typically rural settings, these smallholders have invested their sweat and toil working smallholding lands granted to them by the government.

Deforestation Watch is compelled to ask whether green NGOs like Greenpeace and FOE have considered the plight of these smallholders when they agitate against an edible oil that, for all intents and purposes, occupies LESS THAN 1% of the total world agricultural area and yet produces almost 30% of the world's total production of edible oils? Are smallholders considered expendable "colatteral damage" by the green NGOs in their fight to stop the growth of the world's cheapest cooking oil?

Have they also considered the sheer incongruity of the deforestation accusations against palm oil?

The incongruity is this. If palm oil really is so land intensive that it causes the kind of massive deforestation that green NGOs have been asserting, how do you explain how palm oil can occupy so little of the world's agricultural land and yet contribute 30% of world edible oil production?

How do you explain how a small country like Malaysia can be the world's LARGEST producer of palm oil for over a century and yet after cultivating palm oil for more than a hundred years, still retain forest cover of 56%? If we juxtapose Malaysia's 56% forest cover with England's ( from where Greenpeace and the FOE hails) forest cover of 11%, it is patently obvious to any objective observer that palm oil does not require quite as much land as its critics would want the world believe.

Malaysia has committed under the Rio Accord to preserve 50% of its lands as natural forest whilst Indonesia has chosen to preserve 25%, which is the same percentage of land under forest cover in the EU.

Deforestation Watch would like to pose this question to Greenpeace and the FOE: If 25% forest cover in Europe is acceptable to Greenpeace and the FOE, why is 25% forest cover in Indonesia so objectionable to these green NGOs considering that Indonesia is a developing country which is also one of the world's most densely populated, with hundreds of millions of mouths to feed?

Perhaps, when the green NGOs develop the compassion and empathy displayed by the young Jason Ray, they might then be capable of providing an intelligible response. THE END

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Deforestation Watch was established to drive sustainability mainstream. Striving to be a center of green news, solutions and all things green, we also help corporations looking for green guidance. In a nutshell, we live green through education and pro-active action!