POSTCARDS FROM THE RAINFOREST ~ by John and Jasmine Steed

Ah, the majestic Rainforests of Southeast Asia. The Equatorial region which has spawned millions of species of life forms which make the great living machine that is our earth run smoothly. From insects, fungus, reptiles, mammals, birds and plants in numbers you can't imagine, many species of which remain undiscovered.

Think about the above image for a moment. Listen to the river flowing over those rocks, hear the constant buzz of cicadas, insects, the songs of gibbons, the calls of the hornbills. Try and picture otters running along the banks, breathe in that pure air. Imagine that in that great forest, tigers prey on wild boar, elephants control the growth of saplings on their 3-month lap of the forest which they and their ancestors have trodden for centuries.

Termites are actively breaking down the fallen trees and foliage to ensure it doesn't build up. Birds and primates are feeding on fruits and depositing seeds to spread the growth of the jungle. Egrets and kingfishers taking their feed of fish from the rivers and streams. Deer feeding on small growth plants and ferns. Bears feeding on combs of honey, Geckos feeding off insects, tapir feeding on termites and anthills.

A fabulous never-ending cycle which has been on-going since before man arrived.

BUT.......

The system is rapidly failing. Forests are disappearing at an unprecedented rate. We have written this "postcard from the forest" to try and convey an understanding of the consequences behind the actions and decisions we as individuals make.

Here are some images I took yesterday (1st June 2008). We were supposed to go to this well-known forest reserve to look for a particular species of bird known to be present there, but when we arrived, we were greeted with this heart-stopping sight.

Sights like this are not uncommon in Malaysia. Much of the forest in South-east Asia, Africa and South America has already succumbed to such ill treatment to fuel our personal demands for timber products, and the use of products grown on the converted land. This timber is often used for:

Furniture (Tables, Chairs, Dining sets, beds, etc.)
Housing materials (Doors, Window frames, Flooring)
Construction materials (plywood, roofing, pallets, etc.)


Once denuded, the land is converted into agricultural based businesses. In the case of Malaysia/Indonesia/Thailand, the land will be converted into a monoculture (single species) by planting oil palm trees. Millions of hectares of oil palm plantations are now in operation throughout Southeast Asia, fueling the demand for edible oils and bio-fuels. The oil palm tree is not native to Southeast Asia, it is an introduced species. Therefore, no animals or plants can adapt to this environment. There is nothing that feeds or lives in these vast estates except for rats, snakes and domesticated livestock grazing on the grass.


Other forests around the world have been cleared for soya plantations, livestock pastures, sugar, coffee, tobacco farming, and so on. With over 6 billion mouths to feed, the demand for food has never been greater, and the land required to fulfill these requirements keeps increasing in area... to the detriment of the forests.

With the destruction of this particular forest, the direct sunlight has dried up the soil, killed off the insects and fungus which enable the soil to be so fertile. Birds now have no nesting sites, the mammals will most likely have been killed while the loggers were ripping through the land. In effect, the system has died.

I walked along this logging trail and the sound was eerily quiet. It was very disturbing, as one should be hearing the orchestral sounds of millions of living creatures - but, instead, I heard lone chirps from distant birds, perhaps wondering what the hell has just happened to their home.


You may ask why there are still trees standing when the loggers have already finished their job. Well, look at what remains. There is little economic value in what is left, as the loggers are mainly interested in the high value old growth, the trees that are hundreds of years old.

The job is not yet complete. While standing at this point, I faced a stretch of rubber plantation (those tall skinny trees in the distance) that had encroached upon the original jungle, and from beyond, back into the main jungle, I could hear the constant roaring of huge diesel engines at work. It's a really nasty sound - to hear the huge Caterpillars and chainsaws at work. The rate at which they can destroy swathes of forest is unimaginable.

So what will become of this land? Most probably, the Caterpillars will gather up all remaining trees and cuttings into huge piles, and the whole lot will be burnt, releasing thousands of tons of CO2 into the atmosphere, and choking millions of people. It's illegal to do such things here in Malaysia, but it is still done, as is the case with our neighbor, Indonesia.


Consider every large tree felled. A fraction of those trees can support the nesting requirements for Malaysia's prized hornbills. And while the numbers of these great birds still appears to be quite healthy, we will see in a short period the numbers falling to grossly endangered levels. These birds are capable of living up to 30+ years old, so today's destruction of forests will result in a drop in numbers of these birds in the coming years, where less reproduction has taken place.

Believe it or not, but this area, known as Bukit Sepang is actually a forest reserve. But in Malaysia, as you can see, this holds no meaning in terms of conservation. The only form of protection a forest can gain here, is to be raised to the status of a National Park.

Malaysia has few such parks, and whilst one can visit them, one can feel that they span for miles upon miles, the truth is that on the whole scale of things, they're actually quite small islands of rainforests which have been granted protection, surrounded by much larger areas of oil palm plantations.

For those living in the West, you may not know how much forest remains in South-east Asia. You may think that there's still plenty of it, and we should start being concerned in a few more decades. Well, I'm sorry to say that the world's richest and oldest forests have just about gone.

Take Borneo for instance (synonymous with pristine virgin jungle), where vast areas of wonderful forests have disappeared and been replaced with oil palm plantations. It's irreversible (in our lifetime and many generations to follow), I'm sorry to say.

So why am I writing this?

1. To get it off my chest, as it's still a fresh open wound.

2. To try and raise awareness among those who do not witness the savagery of man on a daily basis.

3. To try and provide an understanding of the consequences of buying products which come from such environmental destruction.

I'm not sure how this will leave you feeling, having read thus far, but it must be understood that the countries playing host to the world's richest natural resources are often some of the poorest, so you must appreciate that what appears to be their "savagery" is no more than a means to an end when it comes to economic growth.

I often feel like blaming the Malaysian government for permitting such destruction, but ultimately, a demand is present, and that demand can be supplied. Take away that demand, and the supply will have to stop too. Whether it be demand for timber products or palm oil products.

So, think twice about that nice hardwood flooring, think again about whether you need that garden furniture, that lovely teak dining set, that lovely mahogany dining table. The pictures show exactly where the wood has come from. "But the shop says it's from sustainable sources," you might say.


Rainforests can't be planted, they're not planned or designed by man. You can't match the perfection of nature or replicate its complexity.

You NEVER see a plantation of hardwood trees. It takes hundreds of years for them to mature, so it is not an investment many would be willing to make. Some forests are set aside for regenerative purposes, so that trees can be pulled out once matured, but as I have just highlighted, rainforests can't tolerate any interference from man.

Take the above photos as an example. If the government were to set aside this land for regenerative purposes, you can see already that the majority of living organisms have vanished, therefore, the rainforest will not operate as a living organism such as those few precious primary forests remaining, those that support the millions of lifeforms I mentioned in the first paragraph.

So, sustainable sources are a myth when it comes to tropical timbers, and you should be cautious about buying into such notions.


Thanks for reading this, and I hope it has raised at least some awareness of what the timber trade and edible oils business is doing to our environment here in Malaysia. Don't let this information stop you from visiting Malaysia. Eco-tourism is on the increase, and with enough pressure placed in the right places, we may be able to turn this mess around as the economy gains from the increased interest in the amazing diversity of this wonderful place.

Jas & John

[First posted 6 June 2008. Reposted 17 June 2016]

BRUNO MANSER: Tribute to an Ecowarrior (repost)

Bruno Manser (born August 25, 1954 in Basel, Switzerland) was an environmental activist. He was well-known in Switzerland as a public activist for rainforest preservation and the protection of indigenous peoples.

Life with the Penans

Manser created richly illustrated notebooks during his stay from 1984 to 1990 with the Penan people, in the jungles of the East Malaysian state of Sarawak, on the island of Borneo, near the Indonesian border of Kalimantan. He stayed with the nomadic band of Along Sega, who became the figurehead of the Penan's struggle. Manser also visited many other settled Penan communities in the Upper Baram district. These notebooks were later published by the Christoph Merian press in Basel. Bruno Manser, however, was declared persona non grata in Malaysia and had to leave the country with a bounty of $40,000 on his head.


Activism

Manser protested on an international level on behalf of Sarawak's Penan tribe. On 17 July 1991 Manser chained himself to a lamppost with a banner during the G7 summit until cut loose by the police. His protest was featured on the front page of The Independent newspaper the next day. In 1992 he parachuted into the Rio World Summit on the Environment.

Disappearance

As of 2006, Manser has been declared missing and presumed dead. His last known communication is a letter mailed to his girlfriend on May 22nd, 2000, from the village of Bario, in the Kelabit Highlands, Sarawak, where he had returned to meet the nomadic Penan he had lived with for so long.

Manser is still regarded by the Penan as somewhat of an idol, named Lakei Penan (Penan Male). A man from the outside world who united the Penan and was accused by the Sarawak government of instigating blockades of logging roads (although no proof was ever produced). Manser's efforts created an impact in Tokyo and Europe, alerting people to the inhumanity of the tropical timber industry.

After search expeditions proved fruitless, a civil court in Basel ruled on March 10th, 2005, that Bruno Manser be considered dead. Manser's unpopularity with Sarawak's government and the logging companies such as Samling Plywood - who have been known to use intimidation and violence as scare tactics - have raised suspicions about his disappearance, none of which has yet been proved.

Anonymous information concerning the presumed murder of Bruno Manser can be sent to this address. [From Wikipedia]


BRUNO AND THE BLOWPIPES
Who will determine the future of Sarawak's Penan?

by Paul Spencer Sochaczewski © 2001

SARAWAK, MALAYSIA: Bruno Manser has disappeared in Borneo and is feared dead.

Manser, 47, was last seen in May 2000 in the isolated village of Bario in the Malaysian state of Sarawak, close to the border with Indonesia. The Swiss had illegally entered Sarawak to rejoin his tribal friends, the Penan, with whom Manser had spent some six years fighting the timber operators that natives claim are destroying their forest home.

I've met Manser several times. We are not close, but I respect his understanding of the realpolitik that is at the heart of most fights between native peoples and paternalistic governments.

He achieved worldwide recognition from 1984-1990 when he lived in the rainforest with the semi-nomadic Penan of Sarawak. Malaysian officials saw him as a fugitive and a provocateur and called him an "enemy of the state number one." Manser constantly avoided arrest with the panache of a Swiss Robin Hood. When he left Sarawak, through Brunei, he returned to Switzerland to create the non-profit Bruno Manser Fonds.

In 1999 he returned to Sarawak and paraglided onto the front lawn of Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud's high security residence. Manser offered a truce in exchange for the government creating a biosphere reserve for the Penan. The Swiss man with the impish grin and John Lennon glasses was deported.

Manser has arguably been the most potent catalyst for media coverage of the fight by the Penan, and other Sarawak natives, to protect their forests against what they say are insensitive governments and greedy timber barons.

Defensive Sarawak government officials note that 95% of the state's substantial oil revenue goes to federal coffers, leaving Sarawak little choice but to earn money from natural products, of which timber is by far the most profitable. "Where are we to get money except through the forest," asks Dato James Wong, former Sarawak Minister of Tourism and Local Government and one of the state's leading timber concessionaires.

Malaysia is the world's leading exporter, by far, of tropical logs, tropical sawn wood, and tropical veneer, and second, after Indonesia, a far larger country, of tropical plywood.

According to Bruno Manser Fonds, more than 70% of Sarawak's rainforest has been cut during the past 20 years. Today Malaysian companies run timber operations and plywood mills as far afield as Guyana, Suriname, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, according to a report by Nigel Sizer of World Resources Institute and Dominiek Plouvier, an independent forestry consultant.

I served in the United States Peace Corps in Sarawak, not too far from where Bruno has disappeared. For my job (and pleasure) I travelled to isolated longhouses, occasionally running into Penan, who appeared like a breath of wind, gratefully accepted some tobacco or salt, and then went about their business.

During those admittedly idyllic days we would throw a circular fishing net into rivers and come up with more than enough fish for dinner. We would go out at night to hunt wild boar and more often than not return with a hairy pig on our shoulders. The rivers were clean, and jungle gibbons hooted their morning call behind the longhouses.

On subsequent trips back to Sarawak I was angry by the desolation of the landscape by timber operators, and heard complaints from dozens of people in dozens of longhouses. Their homes were being destroyed and they weren't getting anything for it. Fishing and hunting was terrible. The rivers were dangerous places, muddy and filled with debris from timber operations.

I visited Penans who had been resettled into government built longhouses - ugly structures with standard government issue architecture similar to army barracks or timber camp housing. Tin roofs amplified the heat, making the residences uninhabitable during the day. The Penan I saw were listless, with vacant eyes. True, they now had access to basic health care and simple schools, but it seemed as if all the energy had been sucked from their thin frames.


When I discussed these issues with Malaysian officials I got a common defensive response, basically, "don't tell us what to do, we know what's best for the Penan and the forests."

"Look at this map," notes Chris Elliott, director of the WWF-World Wide Fund for Nature Forests for Life Campaign. He points to an amorphous shaped illustration published in the Bruno Manser Fonds newsletter that indicates the territory of nomadic Penan and remaining virgin forest in Sarawak. "Bruno backed the Sarawak authorities into a corner by telling them what they should do. Even the slightest whiff of Western lecturing will put them on the defensive," he adds, noting that you'll find similar conflicts and reactions in places like British Columbia in Canada, parts of Australia, Indonesia and Brazil.

Perhaps it was a sloppy tactic - using western style confrontation to get policy changes in an Asian country.

Certainly, Malaysian officials resent being told what to do by pesky foreigners.

During the height of Manser's long Sarawak escapade in the 1980s, Malaysia's Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamed had this testy exchange of correspondence with young Darrell Abercrombie from Surrey, England.

Using his best penmanship, the boy wrote:

"I am 10 years old and when I am older I hope to study animals in the tropical rain forests. But if you let the lumber companys [sic] carry on there will not be any left. And millions of Animals will die. Do you think that is right just so one rich man gets another million pounds or more. I think it is disgraceful."

The Prime Minister replied on August 15, 1987:

"Dear Darrell, It is disgraceful that you should be used by adults for the purpose of trying to shame us because of our extraction of timber from our forests.

"For the information of the adults who use you I would like to say that it is not a question of one rich man making a million pounds...

"The timber industry helps hundreds of thousands of poor people in Malaysia. Are they supposed to remain poor because you want to study tropical animals?

"When the British ruled Malaysia they burnt millions of acres of Malaysian forests so that they could plant rubber. Millions of animals died because of the burning. Malaysians got nothing from the felling of the timber. In addition when the rubber was sold practically all the profit was taken to England. What your father's fathers did was indeed disgraceful.

"If you don't want us to cut down our forests, tell your father to tell the rich countries like Britain to pay more for the timber they buy from us.

"If you are really interested in tropical animals, we have huge National Parks where nobody is allowed to fell trees or kill animals.

"I hope you will tell the adults who made use of you to learn all the facts. They should not be too arrogant and think they know how best to run a country. They should expel all the people living in the British countryside and allow secondary forests to grow and fill these new forests with wolves and bears etc. so you can study them before studying tropical animals.

"I believe strongly that children should learn all about animals and love them. But adults should not teach children to be rude to their elders."


What might have happened to Manser?

Perhaps the Malaysian security forces finally caught him and left him for compost in the rainforest. That way the authorities would have saved themselves an embarrassingly visible deportation or trial.

Another possibility, which I hope is the case, is that Manser has gone walkabout and is hanging out with his Penan buddies. Perhaps he got bored with Switzerland, perhaps he felt that he could do more for their cause by advising them close up. Perhaps he is planning a large media coup.

But Newsweek has reported that four Penan-led search parties have not turned up any traces of Manser, and John Kuenzli, secretary of the Bruno Manser Fonds, says, "We are resigned [to the fact] that if Bruno Manser were still alive, he would have been found." Perhaps Bruno's fate is destined to become an unsolved Asian mystery, like the 1967 disappearance of Thai silk entrepreneur Jim Thompson in Malaysia's Cameron Highlands or Michael Rockefeller's disappearance in the Asmat region of New Guinea.

And what will happen to the approximately 9,000 Penan, of whom about 300 are jungle wanderers?

Certainly change is inevitable for the Penan and the thousands of other, generally more sophisticated, indigenous people of Sarawak.

Who has the blueprint for that change?

Several years ago I consulted James Wong Kim Min (left). Dato James was concurrently the Sarawak State Minister of Tourism and Local Government and one of the state's biggest timber tycoons. James Wong loved to talk with foreigners about the Penan, whom the foreign press has idealized as a group of innocent, down-trodden, blowpipe wielding, loin-clothed people who are wise in the ways of the forest but hopelessly naive when faced with modern Malaysian politics.

"I met with Bruno's Penans in the upper Limbang [River]," he said. "I asked the Penan who will help you if you're sick? Bruno?" Here Wong laughed. "The Penans now realize they've been exploited. I tell them the government is there to help them. But I ask them how can I see you if you've blocked the road that I've built for you?"

I asked if he had a message for his critics.

"If [the west] can do as well as we have done and enjoy life as much as we do then they can criticize us. We run a model nation. We have twenty-five races and many different religions living side by side without killing each other. Compare that to Bosnia or Ireland. We've achieved a form of Nirwana, a utopia."

I explained my experience with Penan who had been encouraged by generous government incentives to resettle into longhouses. How their natural environment had been hammered, how their faces were devoid of spirit and energy, how they had seemingly tumbled even further down the Sarawak social totem pole.

In reply, Wong lectured me, as I have been lectured by numerous Asian officials when I raised similar concerns. In effect, he said "We just want our cousins the naked Penan to enjoy the same benefits we civilized folk enjoy."

"We are very unfairly criticized by the west," Wong added. "As early as 1980 I was concerned about the future of the Penans." He read me a poem he had written:

O Penan - Jungle wanderers of the Tree
What would the future hold for thee?....
Perhaps to us you may appear deprived and poor
But can Civilization offer anything better?....
And yet could Society in good conscience
View your plight with detached indifference
Especially now we are an independent Nation
Yet not lift a helping hand to our fellow brethren?
Instead allow him to subsist in Blowpipes and clothed in Chawats*
An anthropological curiosity of Nature and Art?
Alas, ultimately your fate is your own decision
Remain as you are - or cross the Rubicon!

[* loincloths]


Has Manser been successful?

From a public awareness point of view he has certainly directed considerable media attention to the plight of the Penan and other tribal groups.

But he failed at his major objective: getting the Malaysian government to declare a biosphere reserve to protect the Penan and their forest. In an article in the newsletter of the Bruno Manser Fonds, the activist admitted, "success in Sarawak is less than zero."

Chris Elliott, who met Manser several times, agrees that the future isn't bright for the Penan and their forest home. "There is severe pressure from unsustainable logging, forest fires and conversion to plantations," he says.

Manser had a cautious relationship with the conservation mainstream. No doubt he felt that groups like WWF were too soft.

"We differ on the means," Elliott says. "WWF tried to work in partnership with the government and had some success - a few protected areas were established, there was training of staff, and new wildlife legislation was created. But neither Bruno nor WWF succeeded in getting the authorities to create a biosphere reserve, Elliott notes, adding that WWF now has little activity in Sarawak.

Nevertheless, history isn't written by people who follow the rules. Manser sensed a major injustice and challenged the status quo in which his friends the Penan were paternalistically treated as the bottom of the Sarawak social totem pole.

So, how will this Swiss artist turned ecowarrior be judged by history? As an obstinate fighter for a lost cause or a romantic visionary for a victorious change in policy?

What motivated this man from rich Switzerland to live six years in the forest of Borneo with virtually nothing that most people would consider essential? He learned to process food from the starchy sago palm, learned to hunt with a blowpipe, learned how to live a life that was simultaneously ridiculously hard and unimaginably rewarding.

Manser wrote of his epiphany: "It happened in a prison in Lucerne. I was imprisoned there for three months because I had refused to learn how to shoot at human beings. One day I suddenly perceived the space inside the four walls of my cell... how my body acted as a biosphere... to be so small and yet so incredibly rich and important... I flew out of the prison, over to my parents in Basel, to my friends in Amsterdam... I flew on and left our solar system. Then I turned around and flew back. There I sat, back in my body. Since then I carry this certainty in me: everyone of us is nothing and simultaneously the most important creature in its space and place. Indispensable from the first to the last breath...


"So when people say: 'Don't be active, it's just a waste of time, it won't help anyway,' then you already know that they're scared of losing profit and would even sell their own grandmother. Does it have to be the children today who dare say out loud to the politicians and the economists: support what is real and true, avoid what is bad?"

A passage by T.E. Lawrence comes to mind:

All men dream: but not equally.
Those who dream by night in the dusty
recesses of their minds wake in the day
to find that it was vanity;
but the dreamers
of the day are dangerous men,
for they may act their dreams
with open eyes,
to make it possible.

Paul Spencer Sochaczewski © 2001

THE PENAN: True Sons & Daughters of Mother Earth

[First posted 4 November 2008. Reposted 25 August 2017]

ONLY 500 TIGERS LEFT IN THE WILD!

THE TIGER

by William Blake

Tiger, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder and what art
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand and what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? What dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,
And water'd heaven with their tears,
Did He smile His work to see?
Did He who made the lamb make thee?

Tiger, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

William Blake (28 November 1757 - 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognized during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age.


Since 1896, our national emblem has been the tiger, king of the jungle, which figures in Malaysia's coat-of-arms and many institutional crests. The tiger symbolizes courage, strength, bravery, agility, beauty and majesty.

But what have we done with our national icon? We have already killed more than 80% of them. By clearing forests without proper planning, we have deprived them of their habitats. Hunting tigers for profit to satisfy the demands of those who believe tiger meat has aphrodisiac or tonic properties has dramatically decimated the population.

This video shows how cruel hunters can be...



Today there are fewer than 500 tigers left in the wild. If the current rate of habitat destruction and poaching continues, these remaining tigers will be wiped out within a decade or less.

A nation that destroys the majestic animal that inspired its own national emblem surely cannot be called developed. We owe it to our children and their children to protect our tigers in the wild.

Not such a good year for the Tiger...

AFP/Getty Images

Find out more about the Tiger Blogfest 2010 here!

An Orangutan's Best Friend

Suryia and Roscoe live at the T.I.G.E.R.S sanctuary in Myrtle Beach , South Carolina.

The orangutan was in the rescue center and was not doing well. This old hound wandered in truly emaciated and the orangutan took to him the moment the dog arrived.

He stayed with the hound night and day until he was well and during the process found a reason to live.

They are now inseparable.

[Images forwarded by Hari Ho]

Oil palm cultivation has brought in a vast amount of revenue to Malaysia - but most of it ends up in the hands of a privileged few. The rapid proliferation of oil palm plantations in the last 30 years has resulted in disastrous deforestation.


As a monoculture, oil palm cannot be considered an eco-friendly cash crop. Artificial fertilizers, weedkillers and insecticides used in oil palm estates have poisoned the land and made it infertile. Many indigenous cultures have been displaced and endangered because of oil palm greed. In Kalimantan and various other parts of Indonesia, Malaysian oil palm interests have caused huge tracts of rainforest to be cleared for oil palm cultivation.

Open burning to clear the felled forests has caused atmospheric pollution throughout the region - and there is no political will to stop the problem because many top government officials in both Indonesia and Malaysia have vested interests in the palm oil industry. In Sarawak, logging companies work in cahoots with oil palm cultivators to rape not only the precious rainforest, but also gentle indigenous tribes like the Penan.



Palm oil products may actually be quite good in terms of nutrition - but oil palm cultivation on such a colossal scale is definitely deleterious to our long-term environmental well-being and must be stopped.

Oil palm-based biofuel more harmful than fossil fuels: Researcher
Tue, December 8, 2009

PALEMBANG: The programme to develop palm oil as a non-polluting biofuel is a “myth” to justify expansion of oil palm plantations in Indonesia, a researcher from Sriwijaya University Julian Junaidi said.

“The burning of palm oil-based biofuel might not generate enviromment-damaging gas, and the process of turning palm oil into biofuel was much more harmful than the use of fossil fuels,” Indonesia’s Antara news agency reported, citing Julian as saying.

Speaking at a dissussion on biofuel organized by the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) here Monday, he said the burning of one tonne of premium gasoline would cause 3.1 tonnes of carbon dioxide (C02) to escape into the atmosphere. However, the process of turning one tonne of palm oil into biofuel would produce 33 tonnes of CO2.

These facts showed that the use of palm-oil-based biofuel would contribute enormously to global warming, he said.

“Tragically, most of the activity to turn palm oil into biofuel is taking place in developing countries, where the oil palm plantations are located,” Julian said.

Apart from damaging the environment, he said, the programme to develop biofuel from palm oil was also causing land disputes in the community.

“The drive to expand oil palm plantations has already led to hundreds of land disputes because the expansion was done not on no- man’s land but on people’s farm land,” he said.

“Oil palm is not a renewable energy source. The price people have to pay for palm oil-based biofuel is too high. Millions of hectares of forests are being cut down for a crop that eventually only contributes to ecological disasters,” he said.

Meanwhile, Anwar Sadat, director of Walhi’s South Sumatra chapter, said the programme to develop biofuel from palm oil had induced the large-scale expansion of oil palm plantations.

The oil palm growing frenzy to produce palm oil not only for households but also as biofuel for industry and transportation had led to degradation of people’s forests and protected forests in South Sumatra’s low lands.

“The oil palm planting drive has also increased the frequency of social conflicts in the province.

According to Sawit Watch (an NGO), in 2003, oil palm plantation-related land disputes happened 140 times but the number rose almost four-fold to 513 in 2007,” he said. — BERNAMA