PALMOILMAGAZINE, KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia has announced a revised policy on environmental conservation that will allow palm oil importing companies to adopt orangutans without relocating them from their natural habitat. The policy was unveiled by Malaysia’s Minister of Plantation and Commodities, Johari Abdul Ghani, during a press conference in Sabah on Sunday, August 18, 2024.
Johari explained that the new scheme aims to protect endangered orangutans affected by palm oil plantation expansion, which often leads to deforestation. “The animals should not be removed from their natural habitat. We need to ensure their conservation,” he said, as reported by Palmoilmagazine.com from Voice of America (VOA). He also noted that Malaysia would collaborate with palm oil-importing countries to promote forest conservation.
The revision comes after the initial proposal from May, which faced criticism from environmental activists. The original plan suggested relocating orangutans abroad as part of a trade diplomacy strategy to address international concerns about palm oil production’s impact on orangutan habitats.
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Now the fund collected by orangutan adoption program would be allocated for non-government organizations (NGOs) that focused on environmental conservation. The State of Sabah would monitor forest areas where orangutan lives to make sure that the animal lives well.
Sabah is now home for about 15.000 orangutans, while in Sarawak there are 2.000 orangutans. The two states were taken as the last fortresses for orangutan population that kept decreasing because of deforestation.
Scientific Director of Forest – NGO, Marc Ancrenaz did welcome the program and hoped that the fund collected would be used to fund orangutan habitat conservation. One initiative to propose would be about to develop forest corridor that would connect fragmented forest areas and orangutan would be worth living.
“Orangutan diplomacy’ scheme was firstly announced after commodity import ban was announced by European Union last year. Malaysia, as the second biggest palm oil exporter in the world, thought that the regulation was a discrimination. Palm oil itself is the main material for many products, such as, lipstick, food, and processed foods, for instance, pizza. (P2)
