07/04/2023 (The Star Online) - THE palm oil industry has always received much flak for its role in deforestation around the world.

The oil palm fruit yields a high-quality oil that has become the preferred cooking oil in developing countries.

And while it is not the cooking oil of choice in developed nations, it is however heavily used to manufacture packaged products, such as lipsticks, soaps, detergents and even confectionaries, to name a few.

As it is cheaply produced and offers a greater yield at a lower cost of production, compared to other vegetable oils, it has become a popular crop in many developing tropical countries.

That is where misconceptions of deforestation stem and questions on its sustainability surface.

Domestically, to show that palm oil is indeed sustainable and to improve the image of the industry, the Malaysian government established the Malaysian Palm Oil Wildlife Conservation Fund (MPOWCF) in 2006 that was managed by the Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC).

This became a foundation in 2020, with a new name: the Malaysian Palm Oil Green Conservation Foundation (MPOGCF).

“Although we were incorporated back in 2020, we only started operationally in 2021 at the height of the pandemic,” shared MPOGCF general manager Zamakhshari Muhamad.

Its formation established five main objectives for all its activities: first, the reforestation of degraded forest areas; second is to encourage and promote biodiversity conservation initiatives and best sustainability practices in Malaysia’s oil palm plantations; third is to further explore research on conservation; fourth involves working with NGOs in carrying out various conservation programmes; and the fifth is promoting the sustainability of the palm oil industry.

Zamakhshari:

Active participation

As a foundation, MPOGCF runs various impact-based conservation programmes that demonstrate to the world that the Malaysian palm oil industry can indeed be sustainable.

Zamakhshari gave an example of the Orangutan Habitat Rehabilitation Project, which was initiated via the foundation’s 1-Million Tree Planting Programme.

The project aims to rehabilitate a 2,500-hectare forest area in Lower Kawaq, Ulu Segama Forest Reserve, Lahad Datu, Sabah that was degraded due to logging and forest fires.

This 10-year project was made in collaboration with the Sabah State Forestry Department and began in 2020.

Besides providing a natural habitat for orangutans and fulfilling the environmental pillar, it also generates employment opportunities for local indigenous residents such as tree planters, tree maintainers and tree sapling suppliers, satisfying the social pillar.

“Another noteworthy programme is a collaboration with the Department of Wildlife Protection and National Parks (Perhilitan) in the ‘Save the Malayan Tiger Campaign’,” he said.

“We aim to increase the Malayan Tiger population by ex-situ breeding, with the aim of producing five cubs that will later be reintroduced into their original habitat.”

Another programme that involves conservation is the Borneo Elephant Sanctuary (BES), where MPOGCF partnered with the Sabah Wildlife Department (SWD) to support the rehabilitation of rescued elephants while providing mitigation measures in reducing human-elephant conflicts in Sabah.

“We have also collaborated with SWD and Sabah Softwoods to prepare an elephant corridor, to reduce the likelihood of elephants wandering into the plantation areas,” he added.

Harmonious coexistence

Zamakhshari also added that although there are many individual programmes that have been carried out by individual plantation companies, some even in collaboration with Perhilitan and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), there are times when human-wildlife conflicts do occur with devastating effect.

“We try to educate the public and the plantation owners that in dealing with wildlife, we have to coexist together.” He pointed out that MPOGCF’s approach of “Living Together in Harmony” sets out to raise public awareness on endangered wildlife by promoting human-wildlife coexistence.

“Oil palm plantations can play a role in human-wildlife coexistence by not causing harm or any loss of habitations and respecting their premises, while prioritising wildlife movement when developing plantations,” he said.

Human-wildlife coexistence in oil palm plantations is achieved when a balanced or a negotiated compromise on how to exist together between humans and wildlife is considered, implemented and enforced.

This brings in the balanced principles upon which sustainability is built and sustainable development is achieved, which are the three “P’s” of sustainability.

The triple bottom line’s balance approach considers the right balance between people (social responsibility), the planet (environmental responsibility) and profit (economic profitability).

“Living Together in Harmony” was rolled out as a concept by MPOGCF in early August last year through “The Other Malaysians” out-of-home billboard campaign which featured the three flagship species mentioned.

In progressing ahead

Although the foundation has two years to gain its footing, it has already laid out plans for the future.

Among others, these include creating guidelines to help oil palm smallholders and estate owners manage biodiversity in a sustainable and environmentally-responsible manner, encouraging smallholder plantations to nurture a local barn owl population as a biological control against rat pests, and rehabilitating palm oil plantations to return to their natural state to improve ecological biodiversity.

“We will continue to ramp up our biodiversity and wildlife conservation efforts to improve the image of the palm oil industry and in proving that the industry is sustainable,” said Zamakhshari.

He said the foundation will also ensure its key programmes are more visible and to further press the message that the palm oil industry is sustainable, in order to seal the relations with stakeholders at home and abroad.

“We are always looking at critical areas related to green conservation in the industry, to the short, medium and long-term protection and preservation, in addition to managing and conserving the country’s natural heritage,” he concluded.

https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2023/04/07/proving-oil-palm-plantations-are-sustainable