Malaysia's Sabah aims to win big as world's first green palm oil state

SANDAKAN, Sabah: For Ettol Kumpilon, the switch from growing rice to oil palm on his small family farm in Malaysia's eastern state of Sabah has enabled him to renovate his home, send his eldest child to school and build up a healthy pot of savings.

" there is definitely a temperature difference now in my village, compared to in the 1980s. The fertility of our land was better when things were cooler." Nonetheless, 65 per cent of Sabah is still covered by lush forests home to often-endangered wildlife including wild boar, orangutans, proboscis monkeys and pygmy elephants.

Helping steer Sabah's palm oil sector towards a greener future under the initiative - which unites growers and consumers, local communities and conservation groups - is the state forestry department's chief conservator, Frederick Kugan. The focus this year will be on ramping up pilot projects that have helped small farmers qualify as green and ethical.

"Oil palm is a very important commodity to the state, so we are here to protect the industry to ensure that whatever palm is produced from Sabah is accepted by the market." Malaysia has lost nearly a fifth of its old-growth forest since 2001. It set a five-year cap on its total palm oil plantation area in 2019 and outlined plans to increase fines and jail terms for illegal logging.

"It is important to share with the villages the balance of profit and the environment," said Wasai."The planet is our home and if our home is not healthy, then we are also not healthy." But the agribusiness giant sees"the obvious benefits" of the state's entire supply base following suit, said Perpetua George, a Sabah native and sustainability manager at Wilmar.

Dove soap-maker Unilever is also behind the project, working with WWF-Malaysia to get 70,000 hectares of Sabah plantations certified by the RSPO, protect forest conservation areas and restore habitats critical to elephants and orangutans.

Energy Energy Latest News, Energy Energy Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

Indonesia runs early tests to produce palm oil gasolineJAKARTA : Indonesia has conducted early tests to produce gasoline made from palm oil, its energy ministry said on Tuesday, as it seeks to expand use of the vegetable oil in its energy sector. To absorb more of its palm oil output and slash fuel imports, the world's biggest producer of the oil in 2020 laun Bad move, in terms of carbon mitigation and elimination, and in terms of incentivising ecologically destructive plantation growth.
Source: ChannelNewsAsia - 🏆 6. / 66 Read more »