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Article

11 Oct 2005

Author:
letter to editor by Simon S. C. Tay, Chairman, Singapore Institute of International Affairs, in Financial Times

Orang-utans are not the only creatures imperilled by reckless palm oil production [Indonesia, Malaysia]

Sir, Your Lex note on palm oil (October 7) is right on the potential boom in palm oil, but wrong on the potential costs and ill-effects...Palm oil plantations have been implicated as a primary source of fires that have recurred in Indonesia over recent years, resulting in region-wide haze and air pollution...The fires also have obvious effects on climate change...Palm oil itself need not be environmentally harmful. But a code for the sustainable growth of this industry is much needed...The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) has negotiated a treaty to deal with the issue. But Indonesia, the epicentre of the fires and where palm oil is most rapidly expanding, has not acceded to any of its obligations.