15/04/2008 (The Star Online), Kota Kinabalu - Malaysia’s palm oil industry is burnishing its green image with a RM20mil wildlife conservation fund.

The Malaysian Palm Oil Conservation revolving fund would, for a start, help fund a survey on Sabah’s orang utan population.

Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Peter Chin Fah Kui witnessed yesterday the signing of a memorandum between Bursa Malaysia, the Borneo Conservation Trust and Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC) for the aerial survey project.

Chin said the fund demonstrated the Malaysian palm oil industry’s commitment to protecting the environment.

“This is one of the many examples of corporate social responsibility and environmental care by our palm oil industry,” he said when launching the two-day International Palm Oil Sustainability conference here.

Chin said though the Malaysian palm oil industry had generally been very conscious of the environment, there were still many fallacies associated with it internationally.

“The cultivation of oil palm generally gives the world the impression that large tracts of virgin rainforests are bulldozed and cleared to make way for plantations,” he noted.

“We have encountered accusations of trees being cut down, depriving endangered species of their natural habitat and pushing them to the brink of extinction.

“That has been, and still remains, one of the stigmas associated with the palm oil industry. I would like to set the record straight. This is not happening in the Malaysian palm oil industry.”

Chin said palm oil cultivation in Malaysia was strictly regulated and only land designated for agricultural purposes was utilised.

He also dimissed allegations that palm oil cultivation created a huge carbon debt.

“Carbon emissions for oil palm plantations are often calculated based on comparisons with carbon stocks of pristine rainforests as the starting point,” he said.

“Any piece of forested land with high carbon stock, once converted to agriculture, would automatically carry a carbon debt since agricultural land usually carries a lower carbon stock than a pristine forest.”

MPOC chief executive Tan Sri Dr Yusof Basiron said the survey would enable wildlife experts and the industry to decide what could be done for the conservation of fragmented orang utan habitat near plantations.

“The fund is supported by the Government and players in the palm oil industry and now we are officially launching it to create greater awareness that it exists,” he said.