July-august, 2020 | @Forest
Environment
p07
Why Malaysian palm oil
is sustainable
By Camilia Rezali
He believes by combining these two SureSawit™ technologies,
MPOB can promote more clones and increase
the yield.
“One of the very commonly-used technologies developed
by MPOB is the motorised cutter called Cantas,” he
added. This helps increase the harvesting productivity
while at the same time reduce some of the burden of the
harverter which could eventually reduce the number of
labor in plantation.
For record, SureSawit™ SHELL Test was the first hightechnology
DNA-based technology commercially available
genotyping test for the oil palm industry. Parveez said it
was a technology by MPOB and has been licensed to Orion
Biosains Sdn Bhd for commercialisation.
The test allowed oil palm seed producers and growers to
precisely determine the tenera, dura and pisifera fruit form
on seedling, nursery palm or field planted palm.
As stated by Parveez: “Still 70 per cent of our technologies
are available to big players and small SMEs.”
Although there are a lot of technologies, Parveez believes
a lot more can be improved. — @Forest
cities should be enhanced and continued to get back on
track once the domestic economy is restored during post-
Covid-19 to reduce the impact of “unseen” damage to our
Mother Earth.
But how can this be achieved?
A practical policy framework to mitigate emissions growth
is essential to tackle the long-term threats posed by climate
change. It should include the significant current and future
emitters in the world to be effective, and it must limit global
emissions to a level compatible with climate stabilisation.
Next, there should be descriptions for emission growth
drivers and associated emission trajectories. Technical
options should be identified for the emission reduction
growth. And, there should be research on the possibilities
for identifying economic and emissions impacts.
This is why the Climate Analytics report suggested
global economy-energy-environment models to evaluate
policy mechanisms to promote improvements in economic
systems. And also to enable specific industries to adopt lowemission
resources and activities, including to reduce the
financial costs of decarbonisation policy.
A combination of modelling approaches is also useful for
investigating different facets of decarbonisation potentials
and costs and identifying appropriate policies for reducing
emissions.
For Malaysia, the 2020 goal for Malaysia is up to a 40 per
cent C02eq per unit of GDP from 2005 levels. If we look at
the scenario of business as a usual emissions growth path
to 2020, the target does not imply a substantial reduction
in emissions. Hence, there should be an immediate call
for effective emission reduction strategies and mitigation
policies in our country as well as in other countries.
— @Forest
Farhan Kamarulzaman is a Research Assistant at EMIR
Research; an independent think tank focused on strategic
policy recommendations based on rigorous research..
The vegetABLe oil
derived from a reddish
pulp of the oil palm fruits
known as palm oil has
become a miracle ingredient
for anything from
margarine, detergent, ice
cream, chocolate, soap,
shampoo, lipstickand
even biodiesel.
According to Statista,
the consumption of palm
oil globally was at its
peak from 2013 to 2019 as
compared to other vegetable oils. Apart from
its widespread use, palm oil was the most
productive vegetable oilto grow as it takes
less land to produce.
There are attempts by various quarters
to smear palm oil by alleging it had adverse
effects on the environment such as deforestation,
loss of natural habitats and threatening
endangered species, the palm oil industry
had maintained a high level of sustainability.
The Malaysian palm oil industry is
highly-regulated with more than 15 laws
and regulations.
The Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC)
CEO Datuk Dr Kalyana Sundram is a strong
advocate of sustainability and has been
addressing issues like deforestation and the
alleged plight of the Orangutan.
Malaysia has also been pushing for greater
recognition of the Malaysian Sustainable
Palm Oil (MSPO) Certification Scheme to
the world.
The MSPO is the national scheme for oil
palm plantations, independent and organised
smallholdings and palm oil processing
facilities to be certified against the standard.
The process sets the standards for responsible
management of palm oil plantations,
smallholdings and palm oil processing
facilities.
The certification process is run by an
accredited third-party certification body
to assess and verify that the oil palm
management complies with the standards’
requirements as prescribed in the MSPO
standards.
Other palm oil certification standards in
the world include the Roundtable on Sustainable
Palm Oil (RSPO) and the Indonesian
Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO).
Malaysia has been taking steps towards
zero deforestation.
“We are trying to work on a cap of 6.5
million hectares of land devoted to oil palm
cultivation,” said Kalyana.
The cap placed on Malaysia's palm
oil plantations areas at about 6.5 million
hectares by 2023 was proposed by then
Malaysia’s Primary Industries Minister,
Teresa Kok in March last year. It dispelled
negative perception spread by certain quarters
in the European Union (EU) that the oil
palm industry was continuously expanding
and contributing to deforestation.
Sundram said: “We have nearly six million
hectares. Another half a million will come
from the utilisation of land in Sarawak,
particularly native customary land.”
He also assured that the cap on the expansion
of oil palm plantations in Malaysia
would not lead to any supply constraints in
the future.
Malaysian palm oil industry was targetting
increased yield/hectare and as such annual
production of 35 million tonnes of palm oil
Datuk Dr Kalyana Sundram
from the current 20 million tonnes. Sundram
believed better utilisation of land to obtain a
higher yield would be the driver for the palm
oil industry in future.
Besides that, Sundram said the palm oil
industry now has better planting materials –
the next generation of planting material that
promises six to eight MT oil yield compared
to the current return of about 4 MT.
Expanding the yield of palm oil may
require some time as “progressive improvement
in yield is not going to happen
overnight”.
The progress is subject to an active
replanting schedule.
“If we go on rotation on an active replanting
schedule, we could focus on about four
per cent of the total land area to be replanted
annually.”
Although the production and distribution
of Malaysian palm oil were slowing down in
the first quarter of 2020 due to the Covid-19
pandemic, the MPOC was confident demand
for palm oil from consumer countries would
increase as for its primary use as a food
commodity.
“Palm oil is far more affordable. We suspect
this is going to drive the consumption
of palm oil, particularly in the developing
countries, which are our major markets and
consumption of palm oil globally will pick
up,” he added.
There have been numerous efforts to
sustain the international market for Malaysian
palm oil. One of the actions of MPOC
was through a programme in collaboration
with the Qatar Culinary Professionals (QPC)
Association that consisted of members in the
food supply chain in Qatar.
Malaysian palm oil exports to Qatar is up
to 99 per cent as reported by ITC Trademap.
The significant demand from Qatar is an
opportunity to establish new ventures with
local companies.
Despite the western criticism and
constraints due to the Covid-19 pandemic,
Sundram forecasts the price of Malaysian
palm oil could rise to around RM2,500 or
more per tonne by 4th quarter 2020.
He also assured there should not be
any concern towards wildlife, such as the
endangered the Orangutan in Malaysia.
The palm oil industry is not a threat to the
Orangutan. It is propaganda used by western
non-governmental organisations.
He stressed: “The Orangutan population is
protected in Malaysia, namely in Sabah and
Sarawak. The current numbers of Orangutan
are about 11,500 in Sabah and 2,300 in
Sarawak.
“Furthermore, through a number of
wildlife conservation programmes, MPOC
and its industry partners are fully towards
preservation of all wildlife.” — @Forest