Palm oil firms urged to adopt sustainable practices

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September 09, 2008

 

Palm oil firms urged to adopt sustainable practices

 

 

Blamed for pushing orangutans out of their habitat, palm oil companies

are

being urged to help conserve the endangered species in Kalimantan.

Lone Droscher-Nielsen, the founder and project manager of Nyaru Menteng

Rescue Center in Nyaru Menteng, Central Kalimantan, said more and more

orangutans had left their habitat due to damage resulting mostly from

forest conversions to industrial timber estates and palm oil

plantations.

Most of the orangutans at the rescue center, located some 30 km south of

the Central Kalimantan capital Palangka Raya were saved from palm oil

plantations in the province, Lone said.

Central Kalimantan is home to some 32,000 orangutans -- more than half

of

the world's total orangutan population (61,234), she said.

At the world's largest orangutan rescue center, Lone said, there were

about 1,000 orangutan in rehabilitation. Many were ready to be released

back to forests, but the center had yet to locate suitable and safe

forests for them.

In fact, the problem did not only relate to palm oil plantations but to

how they do business, Lone said.

" If they ran their agricultural businesses sustainably, there would be

no

problem, " she said, noting that most plantation companies did not adhere

to sustainable principles in their work.

Sanjay Upasena, sustainability director of Agro Indomas (a subsidiary of

palm oil company Agro Group) said all members of the Roundtable on

Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) were required to comply with sustainability

principles.

" Since becoming a member of the RSPO last year, our company has been in

compliance with sustainability principles. It is obligatory for us, " he

said.

The RSPO defines sustainable palm oil production as an integration of

legal compliance and economic viability, as well as environmentally

sustainable and socially responsible management and operations.

In keeping with the sustainable practices, Lone said, palm oil

plantations

should be grown in degraded forests -- but never in primary forests, as

this would endanger the environment, including orangutan habitat.

The development of palm oil plantations caused forests to be fragmented,

leaving orangutans trapped in limited areas with food shortages, she

said.

Lone suggested palm oil companies develop buffer zones around their

plantations to accommodate orangutans and develop forest corridors to

connect fragmented forests and allow orangutans to roam freely among

plantations.

" If they have the will, it is not difficult for this to be done, " she

said

on the sidelines of a workshop held here mid August on implementing the

Forestry Ministry's action plan for orangutan conservation.

Edi Suhardi, the corporate social responsibility (CSR) manager of Agro

Group, said not all palm oil plantations were to blame for the

degradation

of orangutan habitat.

" Agro Group has a policy of only growing oil palms in degraded

forests. We

never develop plantations in primary forests. Also the government, as

far

as I know, has never approved plantation concessions in primary

forests. "

But Lone said there were still different definitions of degraded

forests.

" We have different definitions of degraded forests. They say that is

degraded forest. But for us, it is still quality forest that can support

orangutans. All, including the government, need to adopt the same

position

on this so that the orangutans can be saved, " she said.

Orangutan Foundation International (OFI) chairperson Birute Mary

Galdikas

said palm oil companies should be made responsible for clearing forests.

" They must be made to contribute financially to the conservation of the

orangutans, because they have cleared forests (and destroyed orangutan

habitat) for their plantations, " she said.

-- Benget Besalicto Tnb.

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