Who is lying?

A sample photo of a logged hill for oil palm?

Friday September 3, 2010 MYT 9:17:00 PM
Protest against palm oil smear campaign in Aussie zoos
By STEPHEN THEN

Star

MIRI: The Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC) have submitted official protest to the Australian Government - to express its anger over the move by zoos in Australia to allow activists to blatantly smear Malaysia’s and Borneo’s image through anti-palm oil public posters.

MPOC Chief Executive Officer Tan Sri Yusof Basiron told The Star Friday that his council had sent two memos to the Australian Government.

“We are countering the lies spread by these activists and making known our objections to the Australian authorities.

“The allegations against us are very serious and damaging to the image of not only our palm-oil industry, but also the reputation of peninsula Malaysia, Sarawak and Sabah.

“The Aussie posters was also brought up to the attention of our Cabinet also. The posters used by these activists in Australia contained a lot of lies. We want the zoos to take down those posters,’’ he said in a telephone interview from his headquarters in Kuala Lumpur.

The Star recently highlighted the move by environmental activists who put up posters in the Adelaide Zoo criticising the oil-palm projects in peninsula Malaysia, Borneo, Sumatra and Papua New Guinea.

The posters, among others, claimed that the palm-oil industry had caused serious deforestation, wildlife abuse, global-warming and the genocide of Orang Utans.

The posters also called for pressure to be applied on the Government and policy-makers to force palm oil industralists to do more to protect the environment and wildlife.

One of the posters claimed that in Borneo, palm-oil developers are “killing up to 50 Orang Utans per week by using guns, machettes, wooden stacks and fire’’.

The Star found out about these poster campaigns during the visit to the world-famous Adelaide Zoo by Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen during her recent mission to promote Malaysia’s tourism spots.

Dr Ng protested against these posters and tried to counter the activists’ stance during her meeting with trade representatives and foreign journalists during her stop in New Zealand and Australia.

Yusof told The Star Friday, the MPOC found similar posters in other Aussie zoos.

“We have contacted politicians in Australia and also the management of the zoos and have asked that those posters be pulled down.

“We have hired independent researchers from overseas to come to Malaysia to carry out independent probes on the Orang Utan and have found no evidence of any killings by oil-palm workers.

“In fact, our studies showed that the Orang Utan population in Sarawak and Sabah have not even declined as claimed by these activists.

“As for claims on our forest destruction and wildlife abuse, the latest information we have is that the environment authorities have already taken steps to improve enforcement and penalise offenders.

“Making sweeping allegations against us is most unfair under the circumstances,’’ he said.

Oil Palm and Sarawak Native Land

16 Aug 2009
Iban farmer arrested for defending his NCR land
Source: www.thebrokenshield.blogspot.com

Matek Anak Geram, an Iban farmer, a member of TAHABAS (Sarawak Native Customary Rights Network) and Committee Member of Jaringan Orang Asli SeMalaysia (JOAS) was arrested by the police on 13 August 2009 for the crime of allegedly restraining the workers of an oil palm plantation.

Unarmed, he was taken into custody by 10- fully-armed police personnel at 8.45 am and detained for two hours at the Mukah Police Station and charged for allegedly wrongfully restraining the workers of an oil palm plantation company, Saradu Plantations Sdn. Bhd. under section 341 of the Penal Code before being released on bail.

For over a year, Matek and his immediate family have been guarding their property against Saradu Plantations who have been encroaching on their native lands.

In individual shifts, they have blocked an access road built on their land.

JOAS questions the heavy use of force and intimidation against one unarmed man and calls for neutrality of the state infrastructure in this legal dispute between the private company and indigenous peoples.

Saradu Plantation Sdn. Bhd. is a Sarawak oil palm company, which has been given 15,000 hectares of land by the state government to develop oil palm in Balingian.

Saradu is also linked to the Sarawak Chief Minister as his brother-in law, Robert Geneid and sister, Raziah Mahmud are majority shareholders of the company.

JAOS said: “Matek Geram’s case is just one of hundreds of land encroachment and conflict cases between indigenous peoples and oil palm plantation companies in Sarawak.

“In light of this, JOAS reiterates its support for the recent call from TAHABAS and other indigenous peoples organisations for a moratorium on plantation development projects.

“JOAS reiterates its position that the State Government-issued provisional leases are encroaching illegally into our constitutionally-recognised customary lands and forests.

“Until the government moves towards a meaningful solution with the full and effective participation and consent of indigenous peoples, incidences like Matek Geram will continue to take place throughout the state, to the detriment of the rights of indigenous Sarawakians, the sustainable development of the Sarawakian population and the image of the state of Sarawak and Malaysia,” it said.- The Broken Shield

Peat Land vs Oil Palm

We know peat land is a sustainable reservoir of water body, home to rich biodiversity and a place to sustain the ecosystem. But wait, there is one spin politician in Sarawak who think from the arse, who claimed that oil palm was more sustainable than peat land. And now he is wasting tax money on his stupid claim.

We know, with oil palm, there are pesticides, there are fertilisers, there are erosions and he called that sustainable. Do you need pesticides, fertilisers and drainage in peat land? Such simple reasoning! Anything natural is always sustainable. Left alone they can sustain naturally. Anything man-made is not.

Generate credible scientific data? Bullshit. Generate wealth & greed would be a better reasoning.

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Sarawak sets up peat R&D lab to back palm oil lobby

Friday November 14, 2008
Staronline

KUCHING: The state government has set up the tropical peat research laboratory unit to counter anti-palm oil campaigns by western non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr George Chan Hong Nam said the NGOs claimed that planting of oil palm on tropical peat land was unsustainable as it would lead to higher greenhouse gas emissions.

“To counter the allegations, we need to generate credible scientific data in those areas,” he added.

Towards this end, Dr Chan, who is also state Minister for Modernisation of Agriculture, said the government set up the laboratory to gather relevant scientific and technical data related to the use of tropical peat land for palm oil cultivation.

“It will evaluate the influence of tropical peat structure and decomposition on peat subsidence dynamics and determine the nutrient dynamics of tropical peat land,” he said on Wednesday.

The unit recently organised an international seminar to update the recommended practices for oil palm cultivation.

Dr Chan said Sarawak has some 1.65mil hectares of peat land, representing 13% of the state, which the government planned to open up for oil palm cultivation.

On a plan to turn Sarawak into the country’s second rice bowl, Dr Chan said the Federal Government had allocated RM80mil this year to fund seven projects.

Of the amount, he said, RM47mil would be used by the Agriculture Department to carry out land levelling.

It will also provide mechanisation services and supply fertiliser, lime and pesticides.

The balance would be used by the Drainage and Irrigation Department to maintain drainage and irrigation facilities as well as develop farm infrastructure.

He said the state hoped to become self-sufficient in rice in four years’ time.

Let orang asli manage their plantations

Tuesday June 24, 2008
Staronline
By CHRISTINA KOH

THE Perak Government wants the Orang Asli Affairs Department (JHEOA) to surrender oil palm and rubber plantation it manages on behalf of the orang asli.

State executive councillor Mohd Osman Mohd Jailu said he was confident that the orang asli were capable of running their own plantations which were currently run by third parties.

“This is not right. The orang asli are professionals and most of them are graduates.

“By right, they should get their land back,” said Mohd Osman, the state Tourism, Hu-man Development and Non-governmental Organisations Committee chairman, after Yayasan Orang Asli Perak’s (YOAP) annual general meeting in Ipoh recently.

He was responding to complaints by YOAP chairman Suki Mee that the orang asli were being victimised as they were not allowed to run their own plantations.

Mohd Osman said he would check the terms and conditions, both federal agencies, to determine if there was a loophole.

Suki said the orang asli had 18 plantations in Perak covering some 7,200ha which had been contracted to Risda Smallholders Plantations Sdn Bhd and other companies to manage.

He said the problem began 15 years ago when the federal government decided to take land reserved for orang asli and develop it through JHEOA on behalf of those who had little capital.

The department then tasked Risda with the job, with the understanding that the plantations would be returned to the orang asli after four years, said Suki.

“But until now, this has not been done. JHEOA tells us that we are not ready or not capable enough. But we are capable. This is our land,” he added.

The orang asli were only given low dividends as infrequently as once a year, said Suki.

He said he planned to propose that the government set up an orang asli advisory committee on all matters that affected the community.

Perak Orang Asli Affairs Department director Mohd Zamri Mustajap could not be reached for comment.

Tropical forests in Indonesia and Malaysia being axed in favour of palm oil

Malaysia Sun
Monday 2nd June, 2008
(ANI)

London, June 2 : A report in New Scientist has determined that tropical forests in Indonesia and Malaysia are being axed in favour of palm oil.

Between 1990 and 2005 palm plantations rocketed by 1.87 million hectares in Malaysia and by more than 3 million hectares in Indonesia.

With the help of data from the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, Lian Pin Koh at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich and David Wilcove of Princeton University in the US, found that more than half the palm plantations came at the expense of forests.

These include the largely pristine, intact forest in Indonesia and previously logged forest in Malaysia.

The rest of the expansion covered pre-existing cropland.

According to the report, the European Commission is drafting a law to ban imports of palm oil crops grown on intact tropical forests.

But, according to researchers, logged forests support nearly as much biodiversity as primary forests, and should also be protected.