Kuala Lumpur: The Malaysian oil palm industry’s initiatives on forest conservation has started to bear fruit, with the country’s deforestation rate showing a steady decline in recent years, said the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB).
Reports show from 2010 to 2015, Malaysia’s forested area increased by 2% to 18.25 million hectares, said MPOB director general Ahmad Parveez. “From 1991 to 2000, the deforestation rate was at 0.27%, and this decreased to 0.09% from 2001 to 2010.”
He said the increase in forested area is partly due to Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil’s (MPSO) scheme implemented on 1 January 2020 to enhance sustainability of agriculture and forest management through mandatory certification of all plantations and smallholder production soil.
Due to this mandate, forest loss began shrinking in 2016, he added. The MSPO scheme was launched in 2015.
Malaysia’s commitment to conserving biodiversity and sustainable management of forests was pledged at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, that is to maintain 50% of its forests. The World Bank’s report in 2020 stated forest area in the country is at 58.18% of total land area.
There are many drivers of deforestation and studies revealed that oil palm is not the major cause of deforestation. This was further confirmed by reports from the Union of Concerned Scientists which stated that livestock, soya and wood products cause higher amount of forest loss compared to oil palm.
“Oil palm causes the lowest amount of forest loss. Therefore, it is unfair to say that the oil palm industry is the only single significant contributor to the environmental issues and global warming.
“There are many other economic activities that are responsible and contribute to the environmental and global warming issues,” Ahmad said.
Major oil palm players which include Sime Darby, IOI Group, and Wilmar have contributed funding for nature conservation and species protection.
These plantations also establish high conservation value (HCV) areas within the estates for biodiversity conservation purposes. For example, the Sime Darby Plantation has set aside 5,779 ha of HCV area for biodiversity protection, he said.
Based on the Food and Agriculture Organisation’s State of the World’s Forests (SOFO), 22 countries including Malaysia have succeeded in raising national food security levels while at the same time preserving on increasing the forest cover, showing that forests need not be cut down to produce more food.
Malaysia, the world’s second largest producer of palm oil, is still ranked as the top 12 megadiverse countries in the world.
