Idyllic scenes of palm trees swaying over sandy beaches have long decorated brochures meant to lure tourists to Indonesia and Malaysia. But few visitors see the giant palm plantations away from the shore.

Each year, the plantations produce millions of tons of palm oil, which has soared in popularity since the 1970s and is now found in foods like margarine, potato chips and chocolate, as well as in soap, cosmetics and biofuel.

With these two Southeast Asian nations leading the way, the industry churned out about 43 million tons last year, making palm oil the world’s most produced vegetable oil, according to estimates by Oil World, an independent industry analyst group.

But the palm plantations are in the cross hairs of consumer groups and corporations in Australia, New Zealand, Europe and the United States. Echoing the longstanding concerns of environmental groups, they say palm oil producers continue to fell large tracts of forest to make way for plantations, destroying habitat for endangered species like the orangutan. In Malaysia, the land devoted to palm oil plantations increased to 4.48 million hectares in 2008, or 11.1 million acres, from about 641,700 hectares in 1975, according to the Malaysian Palm Oil Board. Reports suggest that Indonesia has about 6 million hectares (14.8 million acres) under cultivation.

Last year, the British cosmetics company Lush introduced a soap made from a base that is free of palm oil. Last month, Cadbury New Zealand bowed to consumer pressure and reversed a decision to replace cocoa butter with palm oil in its chocolates. And the Melbourne Zoo in Australia began a campaign to have palm oil clearly labeled on food products to ensure that consumers know what they are buying.

The increasingly vocal protests are not what the industry expected five years after it began developing a certification system for producing environmentally sustainable palm oil. In 2004, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil was formed, representing palm oil producers; consumer goods manufacturers including Unilever, Johnson & Johnson and Kellogg; environmental groups like the World Wide Fund for Nature; and social and development organizations.
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The World Bank has agreed to suspend International Finance Corporation (IFC) funding of the oil palm sector pending the development of safeguards to ensure that lending doesn’t cause social or environmental harm, according to a letter by World Bank President Robert Zoellick to NGOs.

A recent internal audit found that IFC funding of the Wilmar Group, a plantation developer, violated the IFC’s own procedures, allowing commercial concerns to trump environmental and social standards. The audit’s findings were championed by environmental and indigenous rights’ groups who have criticized World Bank support for industrial oil palm development which they say has driven large-scale destruction of forests in Indonesia, boosting greenhouse gas emissions, endangering rare and charismatic species of wildlife, including the orangutan, and displacing forest communities.

Writing to Marcus Colchester, Director of the Forest Peoples Programme, Zoellick said the IFC has suspended new investments in palm oil projects and ordered a review of existing projects, including the Wilmar Group, on social and environmental grounds.

“I have directed IFC management to take all necessary steps to ensure that the problems identified in the CAO audit are not repeated. Furthermore, until we have a new strategy in place, IFC will not approve any new investments in palm oil,” wrote Zoellick. “I have also asked IFC to review the environmental and social performance of all portfolio investments in palm oil. We are committed to ensuring that positive development outcomes-including environmental and social sustainability-remain at the core of IFC’s development business.”

The Forest Peoples Programme last month demanded that the IFC suspend its support for the palm oil sector in Indonesia until it determines how a long list of violations, ranging from deforestation to land grabbing to human rights abuses, were allowed to continue. The group noted that many private banks “look to the IFC for leadership in their lending procedures and use the Performance Standards to guide them.”

(Source: Mongabay.com)

Wildlife charities ProFauna – Indonesia and the Born Free Foundation have jointly called for a full investigation into allegations of illegal trade in wildlife products by several prominent zoos in Indonesia.

Indonesia’s Forestry Department currently alleges the illegal wildlife crime that involves three ex-situ conservation institutions: Indonesia Safari Game Park (Taman Safari Indonesia/ TSI), Pematang Siantar Zoological Park (Taman Hewan Pematang Siantar), and Bandung Zoological Garden (Kebun Binatang Bandung/ KBB). Each of the facilities was allegedly involved in the illegal trade of endangered animals. Documents released by government investigators recorded the transactions between suspects and the institutions that included the following endangered species: Sumatran tiger, orangutan, Malayan tapir, sun bear, leopard cat, bird of paradise, and cuscus.

The alleged involvement of these zoos contravenes Indonesian zoo regulations, which requires each institution to protect and preserve the endangered animals. According to the 1990 Wildlife Act concerning the Conservation of the Natural Resources and Ecosystem, “Every one is prohibited to keep, own, raise, transport, and trade the protected animals including its skin, body or other parts, by-products, as well as to export (inside and outside Indonesia).”

Offenders are liable to a maximum five year prison term and 100 millions IDR ($10,000 USD).
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Hundreds of Borneo tribesmen armed with blowpipes are blockading roads in protest against companies they accuse of destroying their rainforests to grow oil palms for “green” biofuel, cooking oil, soap and margarine.

The confrontation is taking place in the endangered forests of the Malaysian state of Sarawak, where members of the Penan tribe have existed for centuries as nomadic hunter-gatherers living on fish, wild animals and plants.

“This is a last resort,” said See Chee How, a lawyer fighting land rights cases for indigenous people. “There have been allegations of rape by loggers, the rivers are being polluted and the Penan fear for their food supplies.”

Palm oil provides a third of all cooking oils and is used in household brands such as Palmolive soap and Flora margarine.

Soaring demand for its use in “green” biofuel has pushed up the price by 45% this year, prompting companies to clear more rainforest and plant yet more palms. The latest expansion seems to have set off the blockades.
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