Palm oil no longer sustainable for Malaysians, unless they burn it!

KUALA LUMPUR ~ Malaysian power producers will soon start burning palm oil instead of coal following the collapse of palm oil prices on the international market.
Under a plan announced last week by the country’s Plantation Industries and Commodities minister Peter Chin, the Malaysian government also aims to ensure that palm biodiesel is available at every [...]

Palm oil club is a dismal failure: Greenpeace

SINGAPORE ~ The palm oil industry body, the Roundtable on Sustainable Oil (RSPO), has failed dismally to take up the challenge of sustainable oil, Greenpeace said yesterday.”‘Sustainable palm oil’ continues to be a farce while RSPO stands exposed as a weak and ineffectual industry body.” said Bustar Maitar, Greenpeace Southeast Asia forest campaigner.

Minister admits palm-oil cultivation ‘out of control’ in Indonesia

SINGAPORE ~ Indonesia’s agriculture minister Mr Anton Apriyantono said international demands for a moratorium on the country’s drive to expand oil palm plantations, is beyond the control of his government.
Speaking at the opening of the annual meeting of the recently discredited Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil in Bali, Apriyantono said any moratorium, including the one [...]

Palm oil body accused of ignoring greenhouse gas emissions

JAKARTA ~ The body set up to certify “sustainable” palm-oil production in Malaysia and Indonesia is completely ignoring greenhouse gas emissions in its certification procedure, according to a report issued today.
In a damning statement, Wetlands International says that palm oil shipped to Europe by members of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) is far [...]

Malaysia palm oil lobby accused of green-wash, dishonesty

SINGAPORE ~ Malaysian palm oil is finding its way into the fuel tanks of automobiles and other road vehicles in Europe despite concerns about its carbon balance and the rainforest being destroyed to produce it.
According to a new report by Friends of the Earth international, claims by the UK’s Renewable Fuels Agency (RFA) that Malaysian [...]

Nestle, Cadbury, Coke, Pepsi, Unilever et al refuse to make palm-oil pledge

SINGAPORE – Thirty-one food, cosmetic and consumer goods companies – and one palm-oil supplier – have signed a Rainforest Action Network (Ran) pledge to support a moratorium on the expansion of palm-oil plantations into tropical forests.
  But many others, including major international corporations such as Cadbury, Campbell Soup, Chanel, Elizabeth Arden, Hershey, Kellogg’s, Kraft, L’Oreal, [...]

Malaysia backpedalling on oil palm leadership, says NGO

KUALA LUMPUR ~ Indonesia may have overtaken Malaysia as the world’s leading producer of palm oil, but Malaysia remains the biggest exporter, biggest dealer, and biggest culprit, an NGO said yesterday.
“As the connection between oil palm and climate change becomes more widely known, Malaysia is clearly trying to distance itself from being the world’s [...]

Massive area of Sarawak to be deforested for oil palm

SINGAPORE ~The Sarawak Oil Palms Bhd (SOPB) is joining with one of its major shareholders - Pelita Holdings Sdn Bhd - to develop oil palm plantations covering a massive swathe of forested area of Sarawak in eastern Malaysia.
According to an SOPB statement issued on 16 September, some 14,500 hectares in the Sri Aman district [...]

U.S bans illegal wood imports with immediate effect

THE United States is banning the import, sale, and trade of all illegally harvested wood and forest products, effective now.
Approval of an amendment to the US Lacey Act enables the federal government to apply the same Act that has long stopped the import of tropical birds, elephant ivory, and tiger skins to illegally harvested wood [...]

Palm-oil producers visiting Europe re "smear" campaign

MALAYSIA ~ A high-level Malaysian delegation will meet with leading NGOs in Europe this week in an effort to counter what it says is “a smear campaign” against bio-diesel and the palm oil industry.
Sarawak Timber Industry Development Corporation (STIDC) general manager Datuk Len Talif Salleh said the delegation would have roundtable talks with NGOs in [...]