Singled out: Oil palm cultivation uses a mere 0.3% of the world's five billion ha of agriculture land, yet the crop has been unfairly targeted by NGOs as a cause of deforestation and global warming.
ON SUSTAINABILITY, there is an on-going battle whereby the NGOs are scrutinising oil palm producers on their land use for palm oil cultivation. What are the challenges expected for 2015?
Yusof: Out of the total 5 billion ha of agriculture land globally, oil palm is only using some 15 million ha. This represents less than 0.3% of the world’s total agriculture land. It is the sovereign right of Malaysia and Indonesia to develop our agriculture land. Even if we double the hectarage for oil palm, it is still not going to cause global warming or CO2 emission, compared to the 5 billion ha of global agriculture land. Therefore, it is wrong for NGOs to point the finger at oil palm producers for causing severe deforestation and global warming. In fact, the petroleum sector is the major cause of global warming and C02 emission while oil palm’s contribution is negligible. Oil palm producers are being harassed without any scientific evidence or justification. We have been singled out to be subjected to zero deforestation. Even the so-called RSPO original sustainable development policy has been hijacked to be framed under the zero deforestation slogan. To me, this attempt will affect the aspirations of developing nations for further development and hinder them from being progressive.But in the end, the truth will prevail as we have the supporting facts.
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