Entering the 100th anniversary of the palm oil industry in Indonesia, the world`s largest palm oil producing country is still preoccupied with responses to anti-palm oil expansion campaigns launched by environmental NGOs.
A celebration to be highlighted with a number of events such seminars, exhibitions, sports tournaments and charity, will be organized in Medan, North Sumatra, on March 28-30, 2011.
And the most important, the event will also be used as an opportunity to correct public misconceptions on negative impacts of oil palm plantations on the environment.
The Indonesian Palm Oil Producer Association (GAPKI) Chairman, Joefly Bahroeny, told journalists in Jakarta on Friday (Oct 22) that Indonesia`s crude palm oil (CPO) production was expected to reach 22 million tons this year, up nearly 1 million tons from the year before.
With the area of palm oil plantations covering 7.3 million hectares coupled with constant efforts to increase their productivity, the target of CPO production of 22 million tons for this year could be achieved, he said. Nearly 16 million tons of the CPO production this year could be exported, he said.
He believed the global CPO prices which hit a record high of US$1,000 per ton in recent weeks could benefit the country`s export of the commodity.
The palm oil industry has grown rapidly and made a significant contribution to the economy of Indonesia. Therefore, businessmen as well as the government are quite cautious of what they have regarded as “negative campaigns” on oilpalm plantations.
The deputy chairman of the Indonesia Palmoil Council, Derom Bangun, said recently the government`s moves to overcome the negative campaign had already been fruitful although they were not yet maximal.
Indeed the effort had to be continued through various ways including diplomacy so that the campaign could further decline, he said.
Derom said CPO would continue to be the main contributor of foreign exchange income for the country and therefore it was reasonable for all actors to get involved in the fight.
Malaysia, another world’s biggest palm oil producer, has repeatedly invited Indonesia to set up a joint council based in Europe and the United States to fight “negative perceptions and unfounded allegations made against the palm oil industry”, according to Bernama in Kuala Lumpur recently.
Malaysia’s former primary industries minister Tun Dr Lim Keng Yaik said both countries should set aside some funds for the council and appoint an articulate person to attend all forums organised by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) campaigning against the palm oil industry.
“The person must be prepared to debate with them based on well-researched facts and figures on our side,” Dr Lim said in a keynote address at the Second International Conference on the Future of Palm Oil Business 2010 in Kuala Lumpur earlier this month.
“Malaysia and Indonesia as the main palm oil producers must come to the forefront to fight these threats. I am confident that we will win in the end because their campaigns are based on half-truths and sometimes outright lies,” he said.
Early March this year, Indonesian and Malaysian CPO producers had signed a memorandum of understanding on handling negative campaigns that could hinder development of the industry in the two countries.
The cooperation is aimed at wiping out negative campaign about palm oil,” Indonesian agriculture minister Suswono, said after the signing of the MOU by GAPKI and the Malaysian Palm oil Association (MPOA).
Also participating in the cooperation were the Association of Indonesian Oilpalm Farmers (APKASINDO), the Association of Serawak Oilpalm Plantation Owners (SOPPOA), the Federal Land Development Authority (FELDA) and the Association of Malaysian Plantations Investors in Indonesia (APIMI).
Suswono said Indonesia and Malaysia are the worlds biggest palm oil producers contributing 85 percent of the worlds CPO production and if united were capable of determining the price.
Domestic and international NGOs have loudly been criticizing the massive expansions of oilpalm plantations in Indonesia, including those financed by Malaysian investors, at the alleged expense of forest and peat land areas.
The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), for instance, has expressed concern over the continued destruction of Sumatran tiger habitats in Riau for oil palm plantations.
“WWF is concerned about the destruction of the habitat of Sumatran tigers in Riau. We have reported the finding to the related institutions,” Desmarita Murni, communications manager of WWF Indonesia told ANTARA recently.
Based on the monitoring conducted by WWF-Indonesia, Murni added that the particular site, Bukit Batabuh, was being cleared of its natural vegetation and forests for oil palm plantations. There were oil palm seedlings found scattered over the cleared land, she said.
Apart from WWF, Greenpeace has also been very critical of the country’s oil palm plantation expansions, and has been particularly pointing finger at PT Sinar Mas Agro Resources and Technology Tbk. (SMART) for allegedly clearing forest and peatland areas for the plantations.
In July 2010 Greenpeace Southeast Asia released a report titled “How Sinar Mas Is Pulping the Planet,” which accused one of the world`s leading pulp and paper companies, Sinar Mas-owned Asia Pulp & Paper, of crimes against the environment.
As a result of Greenpeace campaigns, major international buyers, such as Burger King, Unilever, Nestle and Kraft, have stopped buying palm oil from Sinar Mas and its subsidiaries.
Agriculture Minister Suswono, who has tried to mediate the dispute between Greenpeace and PT SMART (but seemingly failed), said recently that the government would continue to take efforts to assure its palm oil industry to remain sustainable and eco-friendly.
He said the government would also encourage development of oil palm plantations that respect eco-sustainability.
Supporting to the agriculture minister`s statement, Vice Trade Minister Mahendra Siregar in a press statement recently said that the government would continue to protect the sustainability of oil palm plantations and COP industry, including its down stream industry.
He said that the government would also keep watching the obedience of palm oil companies in following regulations in Indonesia.
Mahendra said that the government would take more position to protect palm oil industry (so that it would develop in a sustainable way) rather than to react to the attacks by international NGO against a number of CPO companies in Indonesia.
When visiting Oslo, Norway, last May, President Susilo Bambang Yudhohyono has pledged that the palm oil industry in Indonesia would not threaten Indonesia-Norway forest conservation agreement concluded under the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) scheme.
Speaking to the press after the opening of a forestry and climate Conference at Holmenkollen Park, Rica Hotel, the Indonesian president said that Indonesia had a special policy to synchronize the two matters.
“We already have our own plan to fulfill the obligation which has become our part in the cooperation between Indonesia and Norway in reducing our emissions from deforestation and forest degradation,” the president said.
Yudhoyono stated that Indonesia would not stop its palm oil production, neither would it indiscriminately open up new forests for that purpose.
He said that Indonesia had taken a policy to use degraded land for the continuation of its oil palm industry.
The agriculture minister on a separate occasion recently said the government had so far produced licenses for the development of 9.8 million hectares of oil palm plantations in the country but so far only 7.9 million hectares had been realized and so 1.9 million hectares more still have yet to be developed.
“No further development of oil palm plantations however will be allowed on peat land or primary forests,” he promised.
