04/10/2007 (Bernama), London - Indonesian Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono on Wednesday launched a campaign on "Promotion of Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil" following negative campaigns by European NGOs' on Indonesia's oil palm plantations.

"There is a perception in the international community that oil palm plantations have destroyed the environment, degraded the forests and killed orangutans in Indonesia, which is actually not true," Minister Apriyantono told ANTARA news agency here.

The agriculture minister was on a three-day visit to the United Kingdom from Oct 1, with his entourage consisting of among others the ministry's Director general for Marketing and Agricultural Management Dr Djoko Damardjati, Executive Director of the Indonesian Palm Oil Council DR Rosediana Suharto and Deputy Chairman of the Indonesian Oil Palm Businessman Association (GAPKI) Derom Bangun.

Indonesia also launched the same campaigns in several European countries such Britain, the Netherlands, and Belgium, to target government officials, NGOs, businessmen and the media.

In London, the minister met among others with British Minister for the Environment, Food and Rural Areas Hilary Benn.

"I came to give clarifications and information about Indonesia's program of sustainable oil palm plantation development, "the minister said.

In the meeting, Minister Hilary Benn understood the situation in Indonesia and supported the campaigns in order to balance information on the country's oil palm plantations, according to the minister.

Several West European NGOs had blamed Indonesia's oil palm plantations for environmental degradation, deforestation, decrease in the number of rare fauna, and largely contributing to global warming, the minister said recently in Jakarta before leaving for London.

The minister admitted that there were some irregularities in the opening of oil palm plantations.

However, it did not mean that the whole policies on the oil palm industry of the Indonesian government were wrong, he said.

The Indonesian government has issued policies for a sustainable development of oil palm industry for the welfare of the people and without destroying the environment, he said.

The government was committed to the implementation of sustainable development through the Roundtable Sustainable Palm Oil Program (RSPO), reduction of CO2 gas emissions, good agriculture practices, and tropical rain forest protection, the minister said.

The minister said that the country's oil palm plantations also carried out corporate social responsibility programs by empowering small-and-medium scale industries surrounding the oil palm plantations.

-- BERNAMA