Len Talif (left) pours fertilizer onto an oil palm sapling to get the seminar going. Peter is at second left.

05/11/2015 (Borneo Post) - Oil palm industry players are urged to understand and respond to issues facing the industry to ensure its survival.

Assistant Minister of Environment Datu Len Talif Salleh said, among others, there was a need to practise a high standard of sustainable agricultural practices.

He said oil palm plantation developers should address the perception that the industry was bad for the environment.

“When we talk about oil palm plantation, what always comes to mind, especially among Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), is deforestation,” he said at the opening ceremony of Environmental Management In Oil Palm Plantation Development Seminar here yesterday.

He said there are also issues relating to human rights, native customary rights (NCR) and climate change, what with the recent haze.

Others are price of crude oil in international market; weather patterns, which affects production and stock; supply and stocks of competing oils; import tax structure of importing countries; policy on bio fuel of importing countries; and palm oil international market demand, especially from the major consuming countries.

Currently, the state has about 1.3 million hectares of oil palm plantation, and the government’s target is two million hectares.

This would create more challenges for the industry, he said.

“When we talk about environmental sustainability, it will lead to economic sustainability, social sustainability, and political sustainability.”

Len Talif said the Malaysian palm oil industry had contributed significantly to the economic wellbeing of the country, but industry players must stay proactive.

“Oil palm plantation developers should not wait for the government to act. The more the industry realizes its own responsibilities, the less the government will have to intervene.”

Meanwhile, the seminar’s organising chairman Peter Sawal said 12 papers were presented at the seminar, which aimed to provide insight into best environmental management practices.

“We have to confront this emotive topic head-on as the state is continuing with its target of having about 2 million hectares of planted oil palm, which constitutes more than one-third of the total area of oil palm plantation in Malaysia, by 2020.”

Peter said more than 800,000 rural folk in the state are dependent on the oil palm industry to help lift them out of poverty through developing their native rights lands.