KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 11 (Bernama) -- Sri Lanka Rubber Research Insititutedirector Dr L.M.K Tillekeratne says his comments published early this yearthat replanting rubber estates with oil palm without serious scientificstudy could damage the environment was only applicable to the Sri Lankasituation.

"What I'm saying is for the Sri Lanka scenario only, not applicable toMalaysia," he told Bernama here Friday.

Dr Tillekeratne, who was here for a business meeting, said added commentsthat rubber was more versatile and has greater potential for valueaddition than oil palm was again made in the Sri Lankan context.

For Sri Lanka, rubber was an important crop as compared with oil palmbecause the country and a large section of the people were dependent onthe rubber industry.

"The rubber-based industry is identified as the most important thrustindustry for the future (of Sri Lanka)," he said.

He said that 85 percent of the country's villagers were depending onrubber-tree wood (not to be confused with the value-added "rubberwood"product) as firewood for cooking.

"If there are no rubber trees, they would have no other material forcooking purposes and we will be in a terrible situation," he said.

He also said that the replanting of rubber with oil palm in Sri Lankawould result in a job loss for over 30,000 people who are working inrubber-based industries.

"Some 150,000 families would also be affected," he said.

Citing another situation where rubber-planting is crucial to Sri Lanka, hesaid the country imports its timber from Indonesia, but Indonesia hastaken a decision not to export its forest wood (timber aka "lumber" orsawlogs) after 2005.

As such, the replanting of rubber with oil palm will result in a shortageof wood resources for its board-making and furniture industries.

"We don't have enough wood for furniture manufacture. So our rubber-treewood furniture manufacturing at the moment is at a very low level," hesaid.

Apart from that, he said Sri Lanka has a huge coconut fibre industry,therefore it does not need the fibre available from oil palm. (The mainsource of "fibre" in the production of palm oil is the fibre or "husk" ofthe oil palm fruit, the part overlaying the oil palm kernel, itself asource of the highly-valued palm kernel oil or PKO.)

Also, "we have only an 18 percent forest reserve in Sri Lanka, so if thereare no rubber plantations, the people will not have enough rain anddrinking water," he said.

-- BERNAMA