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Letter: Palm oil issue - Some reflections
It is easy for the EU to take pot shots at Malaysia and Indonesia for attempting to develop economically by cultivating palm oil for biofuel
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It is easy for the EU to take pot shots at Malaysia and Indonesia for attempting to develop economically by cultivating palm oil for biofuel.
In fact the Malaysian Palm Oil Council issued a rebuttal to some topics reviewed in this story, and while some of them are ridiculous, it does point out the obviously hypocritical features.
Britain has little forest left as most of the land has been converted to agriculture. Such a paucity of forest cover and the preponderance of agricultural land have resulted in a reduced biodiversity and caused the loss of fauna and flora.
According to data from the Food and Agriculture Organization, Britain has less than 12 percent of its land under forest compared with 64 percent in Malaysia. Agricultural land makes up 71 percent of its total land area compared with less than 19 percent in Malaysia, of which oil palm accounts for two-thirds.
In the 19th century, Europeans plundered Southeast Asia for its rubber and timber. In the 1800s, Dutch and British traders began carving up parts of Borneo to produce rubber and other commodities.
Later Malaysian and Indonesian timber barons devastated millions of hectares of forest logging tropical hardwoods. Today, the WWF, the global conservation organization, says that only a little more than half of Borneo's once-ubiquitous rainforest cover remains.
As a citizen of the United States - the world's largest natural resource consumer and thus driving much of the planet's freefall - and largest abuser of the global commons, which is the environment upon which we all ultimately depend, I must add this apology to my criticism of land use practices in Southeast Asia.
After all, people are just trying to feed themselves; to raise their families and prosper as far as is possible. Over the longer term, however, the underlying problem is too many people (wherever they live) consuming too much energy and other natural resources. Overshoot and unsustainable modes of living are not confined to Southeast Asia, as any American should know.
Dave Cohen
Washington
