A Film About Palm Oil
September 10, 2008
Due to the unwavering support from the general public for Greenpeace international Dove campaign of 2008 , Unilever, biggest single buyer of palm oil in the world, has agreed to play their part in saving the Paradise Forests of South East Asia. Unilever has a special responsibility to help clean up the industry that’s behind so much forest destruction. Unilever have agreed to support the call for an immediate moratorium on deforestation for palm oil plantations. They have also agreed to urgently contact other major companies calling on them to support the moratorium.
This is good news to Indonesia, whose major forest lands have been cleared for decades now to give way to oil palm plantations. This is where Unilever derive most of their products, from oil palm. New green patches of forest might just see a light of day in Indonesia.
This is bad news for the Philippines though, as Gloria Arroyo have practically open up Mindanao for oil palm plantation expansions. Arroyo liberal policy on natural resources allowed, among others, conversion of acres of lands for oil palm expansions. Aside from being the mining hub, Mindanao is also the new haven, for oil palm industries. It looks like Unilever might just see also a light of day, from the patches of lands, in the Philippines.
[...] sources : Cité des Sciences, dépêche AFP, et aussi le blog [...]
If the conversion of land that was mentioned was conversion of Philippine forests to oil palm plantation, then I believe that this will have a bad effect on the natural forests of the Philippines. There are lots of agricultural lands that are not being utilized all over the country. If these lands will be utilized or will be allowed to be utilized by farmers, whether it be planted with oil palm or other crops, then it will surely be of help to farmers and to the economy as well. Because allowing the use of these lands will surely mean income to the farmers and to the community.