KUALA LUMPUR, May 16 (Bernama) -- The government would continue to protect its existing forest areas and not allow them to be cleared just for the purpose of planting oil palm amidst the rising demand for the commodity for the production of biodiesel.

Parliamentary Secretary for the Ministry of Plantation Industries and Commodities, Senator Datuk Dr Vijayaratnam S Seevaratnam, said that the planting of oil palm were carried out in allocated areas and did not involve the clearing of forest areas.

He said this in response to a question from Senator Datuk Azizah Abd Samad on allegations by non governmental organisations and foreign environmental activists that Malaysia had cleared a lot of its forest to plant oil palm.

Dismissing the allegations, Vijayaratnam said that Malaysia's forest areas amounted to more than 66 per cent and that this would continue to be protected.

The increased production of palm oil for the market comes from the existing plantations, he said.

"Hopefully the international society understands the sincere intention of the government to take care of its forest areas, and these areas would not be used for the planting of oil palm," he stressed.

Meanwhile, to an earlier question from Azizah, he said that the strength of the biodiesel industry depended on several factors including the price movements of crude oil which has resulted in many countries showing interest in the alternate biodiesel production.

For the biodiesel industry, the type of raw vegetable oil used is important as the cost of the vegetable oil takes up 70 percent of the total cost of biodiesel production, he said.

"A lower cost of palm oil will make it more competitive to produce biodiesel based on palm oil rather than rapeseed oil and soy bean oil," he said.

Due to this, the potential for the palm oil based biodiesel industry is much more brighter and it offers more staying power and competitiveness compared with the rapeseed or soy oil based biodiesel industry, he said.

Prospects for the biodiesel industry are also bright as there is still a wide difference in the price between crude oil and crude palm oil, he said.

To a question from Senator Datuk Dr Chin Fook Weng on the purity of palm oil used for the production of biodiesel, he said that the levels of the oils mixed were based on the set standards.

"Biodiesel comprises five per cent palm oil mixed with 90 per cent diesel petroleum and the product should comply with the standards that have been set," he said.

-- BERNAMA