Sarawak Report campaigns against Malaysian palm oil

Sarawak Report

The clearing of rainforest, particularly in peat areas which comprise much of mainland Borneo, is one of the largest drivers of global warming. the Borneo Jungle had long been recognised as one of the three ‘lungs of the earth’ yet it was being razed to the ground in favour of a methane gas pumping agri-business.

Moreover, newly enriched Malaysian plantation companies were taking their business model (bribing political leaders then cashing in on logging) into the remaining African, Asian and American tropical forest areas as well.

Thanks largely to the determined campaigning of many NGOs and the facts brought forward by climate change scientists, the penny eventually dropped about this awful error amongst EU decision-makers and we are now seeing a major backtrack with the latest directive to stringently limit the use of palm oil linked to deforestation.

For Malaysian industry interests a once promised cash cow has suddenly dried up pretty much overnight – Sarawak Report has been told that Europe’s bio-deisel represented 60% of the country’s entire palm oil exports and most of it no longer qualifies under the sustainability criteria.