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| Indonesian farmer Kawal Surbakti says a planned EU palm oil ban could devastate his income |
Indonesian palm oil farmer Kawal Surbakti says his livelihood is under attack, but the threat is not from insects or hungry orangutans eating his prized crop.
Half a
world away, the European Parliament is moving to ban the use of palm oil in
biofuels, while British grocer Iceland has announced it will stop using the
commodity over concerns that it causes widespread environmental destruction.
Losing the
key European market worries small farmers like Surbakti and millions of others
in Indonesia and neighbouring Malaysia -- the world's top two producers -- as
prices drop for an oil found in everything from biscuits and sweets to
cosmetics and vehicle gas tanks.
"I've
suffered serious losses," the 64-year-old Surbakti said from his
two-hectare (five acre) farm on Indonesia's Sumatra island.
"Before,
I could save up a little money but now I can't even do that."
Across the
Malacca Strait in Malaysia, grower Mohamad Isa Mansor issued a dire prediction
as he plucked reddish-orange fruits from his trees.
"If
the EU succeeds in the ban, I'm dead," he said at his small plantation in
the coastal town of Ijok.
"Without
this crop we will be living in poverty. It is the source of income for thousands
of people (here)," he added.
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| Chart showing top producers of palm oil, led by Indonesia |
'Victims
of big corporations'
Europe is
one of the world's biggest palm oil consumers, along with India and China.
About half
of the palm oil used last year in Europe was for biofuels that ended up in gas
tanks, according to environmentalists.
Indonesia
and Malaysia have threatened retaliatory sanctions on European products over
the proposed palm oil ban, which calls for a complete phase-out from biofuels
by 2030. The legislation is awaiting a final vote and member-state approval.
As the
diplomatic row smoulders, Indonesian grower Selamet Ketaren says he and other
small farmers -- the backbone of the industry -- are pawns at the mercy of
land-clearing multinational firms that buy their crops.
"Smallholder
farmers like us are just victims of the big corporations," said Ketaren,
who has been growing palm oil since the mid-eighties.
Environmentalists
accuse the multi-billion-dollar industry of destroying huge swathes of
rainforest home to indigenous communities, orangutans and other threatened
species.
Critics say
that palm oil development also contributes to climate change through deliberate
forest-clearing fires, which release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and
lung-clogging smog into the region's air.
Many
under-pressure firms made "no deforestation" pledges, but activists
say they are tough to monitor and frequently broken in the vast jungles of
Sumatra and Borneo island.
This week, Greenpeace said a group of Indonesian palm oil firms that supply major international brands including Unilever and Nestle have cleared an area of rainforest almost twice the size of Singapore in less than three years.
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| Palm oil has become a major earner for Malaysia and Indonesia but at huge environmental cost |
This week, Greenpeace said a group of Indonesian palm oil firms that supply major international brands including Unilever and Nestle have cleared an area of rainforest almost twice the size of Singapore in less than three years.
But
Malaysian farmer Mansor rejects the depiction of growers as an environmental
threat.
"(The
EU) says we cut down the forest. But my land is on peat soil -- there was
rubber growing here before," he said.
"How
can the EU claim that I'm killing the earth?"
'Negative
campaigns'
An EU ban
would threaten the livelihoods of 650,000 smallholders and over 3.2 million
Malaysians who rely on the industry, according to the Malaysian Palm Oil
Council.
"The
policies that the EU is proposing to introduce will harm Malaysia's rural
communities and reduce incomes for Malaysian families," said Douglas Uggah
Embas, deputy chief minister of Sarawak state on Borneo island, home to many
smallholders.
Some three
million people in Indonesia -- the world's biggest palm oil exporter -- are
estimated to be working in the sector and many more depend on their income.
While it
hopes to tap other markets, the Indonesian Palm Oil Association said that a
slowdown in China and "negative campaigns" against palm oil could
hurt the bottom line.
Malaysian
grower Muhamad Ngisa Kusas fears that political decisions made in Europe will
lead to poverty, crime and could push desperate people into the arms of
religious extremists in the two Muslim-majority countries.
"If
the EU bans comes into effect, the price of palm oil will surely plunge. Then
we smallholders are doomed," said the 78-year-old.
"The
EU had better think very carefully about this action."
VIDEO: The European Parliament is moving to ban the use of #palmoil in biofuels, and UK supermarket Iceland says it will stop using it over environmental concerns. Losing the EU market worries millions of small farmers in Indonesia and Malaysia, the world's top two producers. pic.twitter.com/o3RnLJsYUl— AFP news agency (@AFP) September 24, 2018
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