Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Wild Asia (
www.wildasia.org
) on the Stepwise Support Programme, designed to promote
sustainability within the palm-oil industry.
PALM OIL: BIOFUELLING FOREST
DESTRUCTION
Replacing fossil fuels with renewable biofuels made from palm oil sounds like a great way to reduce carbon emis-
sions and thus mitigate global warming, but this simple formulation does not take into account the significant eco-
logical damage done when rainforests are converted to oil-palm plantations.
For starters, creating a plantation means logging the plantation area, destroying plant and animal habitats and
displacing indigenous people. Because young oil palms take five years to produce their first crop, timber sales
subsidise the pre-production phase.
While palm oil is an extraordinarily versatile food product, it's remarkably lousy as a 'sustainable' fuel. Studies
show that the conversion of forests to palm plantations releases far more carbon than all the biofuel they'll ever
produce could possibly save. The equation is especially unbalanced when the plantation replaces a peat-swamp
forest, which releases colossal quantities of greenhouse gases as it dries out; emissions are off the charts when
burning is the final step in clearing branches and underbrush.
Plantation monoculture creates a 'green dead zone', robbing wildlife of native food sources, increasing con-
flicts between wildlife and humans - plantation owners often treat displaced orangutans as pests - and pushing in-
digenous shifting cultivators towards slash-and-burn agriculture in marginal habitats such as peat swamps.
Hydroelectric Dams
Hydroelectric dams are touted as sources of carbon-free energy, but these huge projects
often have serious environmental impacts. In addition, indigenous people are often for-
cibly relocated to areas where they have a difficulty earning a living or maintaining their
traditions. Such was the case with the controversial Bakun Dam (
www.bakundam.com
) in
Sarawak.
In October 2010 the 207m high structure
began flooding a reservoir that will eventually
submerge an area of once-virgin rainforest
about the size of Singapore (690 sq km). Ac-
cording to the Malaysian government, 'the
second-highest concrete-faced rockfill dam in
the world' will produce 2400MW of
'emission-free clean energy,' giving a much needed boost to Sarawak's economy.
Every year fires set to clear Indonesian forest land
carpet much of Malaysia with haze. Air pollution
often peaks in August and September and is worst
in El Niño years.
