Kota Kinabalu: The Malaysian Palm Oil Board said the RM9,000-per-hectare grant it is offering to smallholders is not for clearing forested areas to cultivate oil palm but for planting and replanting oil palm. Its Director General Dr Ahmad Kushairi Din said smallholders had to produce various documents, including land titles that are gazetted for agriculture, to be eligible for the scheme and the application had to undergo a strict process under the supervision of extension officers located nationwide. Dr Ahmad said this in response to a Daily Express report, where he pointed out that the claim by a NGO failed to convey the truth on the scheme and how it was implemented.
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On Sept. 17, a NGO predicted that more wildlife corridors in lower Kinabatangan may be destroyed due to forest clearing and deforestation caused by "generous grants" handed to villagers to plant oil palm. The NGO alleged that MPOB had handed out the monies to landowners in Sukau to clear remaining forests for oil palm planting between the Pangi Forest Reserve and Lot 3 of the Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary.
"To simply say that MPOB is giving away money to landowners to clear the forest for oil palm planting that leads to the threat to wildlife, as mentioned in the article, in our opinion, is a misleading statement that is detrimental to the future development of the oil palm industry in the country," Dr Ahmad said. "As a matter of fact, the oil palm players have been active in conservation, particularly in and around their plantations.
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Some of their completed and on-going projects include the Tabin Wildlife Reserve Programme; Borneo Rhinoceros Sanctuary; and protection of Orang Utan Habitat in Northern Ulu Segama. "As part of the same effort, the Malaysian Palm Oil Wildlife Conservation Fund was launched in 2006 with an initial funding of RM20 million and funds are provided for projects and studies on wildlife, biodiversity and environmental conservation in the proximity of oil palm plantations," he added.