21/09/2011 (Borneo Post) - Higher compounds and fines may be more effective in stopping recalcitrant palm oil mills that continually flout environmental laws and release high levels of pollution into the rivers.

Speaking to The Borneo Post yesterday, Datuk Dr Junaidi Payne, executive director of the Borneo Rhino Alliance (BORA), opined that if palm oil mills continued to release levels of pollution above legal amount because they find it cheaper to pay compound than to clean up, then the fault lies in the quantum of the compound.

“I don’t know what is the quantum of the fine or compound. And I do not know anyone else who knows. In the interest of transparency, it would be nice to see what levels of effluent are currently permitted by law from palm oil mills in Sabah and what are the quantum of penalty for non-compliance,” he said.

Payne also believed that it would be better for the government to make known to the public which are the persistently offending mills.

He also said that the government should encourage local residents to monitor those mills on government’s behalf and report to the relevant state and federal authorities.

Nevertheless, he agreed with Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun’s recent call for those in the oil palm sector in Sabah to self regulate and monitor and minimize the levels of pollution they have released back into the environment.

“Of course it is always better for companies in an industry to self regulate. The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) represents a convenient existing mechanism. The public can be assured that palm oil producers which are RSPO members have a corporate commitment to self regulation.”

During the interview, Payne also touched on development activities that had taken place along river banks and whether it would be feasible for the government to re-acquire the land along these banks to stop water pollution.

He felt that it would be impractical and very costly for the government to acquire the land along the banks of a significant number of water courses in Sabah’s oil palm plantation landscape.

“There are so many rivers, streams and water courses in Sabah’s oil palm plantation landscape. In my opinion, it could be impractical and very costly for government to acquire the land along the banks of these water courses.”

He added that if one wished to minimize soil erosion and runoff of chemicals into these water courses, a more practical method would be to leave existing vegetation unmanaged along the water courses so if the existing vegetation was oil palm, then one would recommend no weeding and no application of herbicide or fertilizers for the row or rows of oil palm plants closest to the water course.

“That would mean about 10 meters of unmanaged plantation along river banks. If this idea is to be adopted, only self regulation would be practical. No new law is necessary. At most, all that might be needed is for this idea to be included in the EIAs for replanting mature oil palm plantation.”

However, there is an argument for the government to re-acquire land along the main rivers such as the Kinabatangan and Segama.

These are among Sabah’s main wildlife habitats and needed to be protected, said Payne.

For the continuity of the wildlife habitat along these banks, he re-iterated the need for the establishment of a wildlife corridor.

He added that there was no ideal minimum width for a wildlife corridor along big rivers but one could imagine that 100 meters would be a practical compromise.

“It is wide enough to allow any species to pass through yet such a corridor along one kilometer of riverbank would require only about 10 hectares of land on each side of the river.”

He also said that it was debatable whether flood plain land, such as the Kinabatangan, should have been alienated for industrial scale plantation.

“Firstly, it is difficult and expensive to manage plantation on land that has unpredictable floodings. Secondly, herbicides and fertilizers applied on flood plain enter the river. Thirdly, flood plain land needs to be drained if planted with oil palm therebyaltering the hydrology of the flood plain.”