WWF is keen to take part in the debate on the costs and benefits of palm oil, but this is a debate that will be most useful to Indonesia if it is factual.
Your article titled “CPO firms brainstorm greener PR” (April 15) contains the surprising claim from Allan Oxley that the WWF receives 60 percent of its revenue from the European Commission.
For the record, in 2009 the European Commission was just one of 24 governments and aid agencies providing 30 percent of the funding to WWF International, with much of this funding tied to specific conservation projects in the around 100 countries in which the WWF operates.
For WWF-Indonesia, the overall level of GAA (Government Aid Agencies) funding is no more than 9 percent, with less than 1 percent funding from the EC.
One of the WWF’s core efforts in relation to palm oil is working with
producers and users of palm oil to create a viable market for
sustainable palm oil that creates long-term gains to the Indonesian
economy without inflicting long-term environmental costs on Indonesia’s
government and people.
Achmad Kosasih
Director, Forest-Terrestrial Species and
Freshwater Program
Jakarta
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