this post was submitted on 08 May 2024
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Malaysia intends to present orangutans to nations that import its palm oil. The move aims to allay concerns that palm oil production is often linked to the destruction of the endangered apes' habitats.

Malaysia has said it plans to present orangutans to major palm-oil-importing countries with the aim of boosting its credentials as a conserver of biodiversity.

The Asian nation is the world's second-largest producer of the widely used commodity, whose production is blamed by environmentalists for fuelling the destruction of the great ape's habitats in both Malaysia and Indonesia.

The move comes after the EU last year approved a ban on importing commodities, like palm oil, that are linked to deforestation.

Malaysia says the ban has been introduced to protect the bloc's own oilseeds market.

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[–] bob_lemon@feddit.de 30 points 4 months ago (14 children)

Genius. If you export some of the apes, the remaining population requires less habitat, leaving more room for plantations! /s

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 13 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (13 children)

On the other hand, Palm oil is one of the densest crops that exist, as in it yield the most nutritional value per m2. So sustainable Palm oil production is less harmful to habitat than mostly any other crop in any other country.

Just Google "the benefit of palm oil production"

Palm Oil yields 4-10 times more oil per hectare than other sources of vegetable oil such as soybeans or coconut palms. The plant accounts for just 9% of the 322 million hectares of land used to produce oil crops globally, yet it produces 36% of the oil. This makes it an efficient and profitable use of land.

Unfortunately deforestation to make palm oil is still a thing, but this is not equal among palm oil producing countries.

In Denmark our main vegetable oil product is from Raps seeds, using about 5 times as much agricultural area for similar yield. But fortunately for us, we had our deforestation of almost the entire country several hundred years ago to make a huge naval fleet, and no body complains today that we are not regrowing those forests.
This is not an equal standard for developing countries, they always get blamed much worse for doing things we already did decades or centuries ago in developed countries.

These countries need to be helped, not to be hindered.

[–] sinceasdf@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

It's worth considering the biodiversity loss where palm oil is grown, as all land area is not equally valuable to nature either. Most palm oil plantations used to be rainforests.

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

True, I just don't think we are entitled to point fingers, and Malaysia claims to have sustainable production.
This rape seed field is just outside my house, it's darn pretty IMO, but the biodiversity that was here is gone centuries ago.

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