Palm oil sector helps people, environment.

TAWAU: Critics of Malaysia's palm oil industry should look at the wider
perspective to understand its importance to the country.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said yesterday the country's standpoint on balanced development was far better than those that point their fingers at Malaysia.
"They only look from a narrow angle and fail to understand we have responsibilities such as the 112,000 Felda (settlers) families and that does not include smallholders and companies.

"We do have policies for places like Maliau, Danum Valley, water catchment

areas or forest reserves and we have a good track record in preserving these locations."

Najib said this when launching the Maliau Basin Studies Centre and Stability of Altered Forest Ecosystems (SAFE), an international research project on the impact of forests and plantations.

SAFE, implemented by the Royal Society's Southeast Asia Rainforest Research Programme (SEARRP), is a long-term study in collaboration with the Sabah Foundation which manages Maliau Basin.

The research, which started in January, last year, is being funded by the Sime Darby Foundation, which is channelling RM30 million over a period of 10 years.

Sime Darby Foundation chairman Tun Musa Hitam said funding would pave the way for research on the relationship between plantations and their impact on biodiversity.

He said that presently, a lot of the negative perception surrounding plantations came from lobbyists and competitors from other edible oil industries.

Musa said it was no longer enough for Sime Darby to just respond to the negativity, whenever criticism arises.

"We need to back our responses with scientific facts to show that our products meet the requirements of all aspects, such as health, in addition to safeguarding biodiversity."

SEARRP project coordinator Dr Glen Reynolds said the SAFE project was a study on the effects of forest fragmentation.

Dr Reynolds explained that as little was still known of the management and sustainability of fragmented forests and the reliance of the biodiversity which they support, it was critical for such research to be initiated.

Musa said that if the study proved that plantations were detrimental towards sustaining biodiversity, Sime Darby was prepared to have SEARRP go public with their findings and, on its part, it would do what it could to rectify mistakes.

In the meantime, the government and the palm oil industry were already taking concerted action to protect the environment.

The Malaysian Palm Oil Council had established the Malaysian Palm Oil Wildlife Conservation Fund in 2006 with an initial funding of RM20 million. Among the projects funded by this initiative are a jungle patrol to protect wildlife in forest reserves bordering oil palm plantations and an orang utan infant care unit in Bukit Merah Laketown Resort in Taiping, Perak.