Palm oil biofuel is endangering the homes of Orangutans

The UK Government are proposing to support the burning of 500,000 tonnes of bio liquid per year in power stations. The largest part of this fuel will be palm oil, since it is the cheapest vegetable oil. One such Combined Heat and Power Station is planned for the Battersea Power Station site.

Even though some bio liquids can be good and environmentally friendly, the use of palm oil ruins the rainforest and the home of orangutan, an animal that today is nearly extinct.

We have written before how Sime Darby, new owners of Battersea Power Station, have carried out illegal logging in rain forests and endangered the homes of orangutans. So Sime Darby, with their production of palm oil,  is not only a threat for Battersea Power Station, but also for orangutans, the rainforest and in the end our environment.

 

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Should We Trust Sime Darby with Battersea Power Station?

The Malasian company Sime Darby is one of the worlds largest producers of Palm Oil. They also make up 40% of the comglomerate which now owns and is redeveloping the Batersea Power station and surounding area.

The company has been surrounded by controversy over its ethical practices. According to a recent Friends of the Earth report Sime Darby has carried out illegal logging in the rain forests of Borneo and Sumatra, home to endangerd speicies such as the Orangutan, to make way for palm oil plantations.
Sime Darbys Palm Oil opperations in Liberia are equally dubious with the company accused of swallowing up farmlands and forests used by local communities to sustain their livelihoods.
The company has been exposed for running an aggressive Greenwash campaign to try and “counter the negative perceptions surrounding the Palm Oil Industry”. The campaign involved the funding of a series of TV shows which were shown on CNBC and the BBC. The films where presented as current affairs when in fact the company which produced them; the FBC Group (ironically standing for Fact Based Media), where in the pay of Sime Darby and the Malaysian government.

Sime Darbys track record show it to be a company with little concern for local communities or the environment. They are driven only by profit and to this end will spend millions to appear “ethical” and “Sustainable” whilst continuing with business as usual. This film asks if we should trust such a company with the redevelopment of one of Britain’s most famous and Iconic buildings.

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Battersea Bulletin 28 – FoE claim Sime Darby, Malaysian co-owner of Battersea Power Station, involved in illegal logging

 Sime Darby, a member of the Malaysian consortium
which recently took over Battersea Power Station, has
been involved in illegal logging in the rain forests of
Malaysia and Indonesia, according to a 2010 report by
Friends of the Earth, ” ‘Sustainable’ palm oil driving deforestation. Biofuel crops, indirect land use change and emissions”, Friends of the Earth Europe, 2010

Download pdf Battersea_Bulletin_28

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Sime Darby Behind Land Grab and Deforestation in Liberia

Friends of the Earth in collaboration with Basta! and Les Amis de le Terre, has released a report investigating the Malaysian multinational conglomerate Sime Darby’s projects currently underway in Liberia, establishing oil palm plantations in order to meet the demands of Europe, China and India. Although rich in natural resources, Liberia is one of the poorest countries in the world, and attracting foreign investors is seen by government and international organizations to be a cornerstone in a strategy for reducing poverty and ensuring the economic growth of the country. With this economic pressure and a desire to create jobs, companies such as Sime Darby exploiting the countries’ natural resources are subject to little national scrutiny.

Forests are crucial to Liberian society. They are a source of subsistence, economic activity and cultural identity, and provide medicines as well as construction materials. Forest areas of the Guinea Highlands found in Liberia are considered as a highly important conservation zone owing to the rich biodiversity of flora and fauna. 85% of this ecosystem, which covers nearly 420,000 km2, has already been destroyed. Liberia’s natural resources, and in particular control over the exploitation of wood and ore minerals, have played a significant role in the region’s conflicts.

Through the promotion and the implementation of policies favourable to investors and designed to attract foreign capital to Liberia, the government signed a number of long-term contracts in quick succession which granted foreign conglomerates the right to install industrial mining projects, large agricultural plantations, and offshore petroleum exploration along the coast. These contracts – known as “concession agreements” – cover nearly half of the country’s land, land which houses 40% of the population.Chief among concessions are those for palm oil production.

The government’s development plans are without precedent: within a few years, around 5.5% of the total area of the country could be covered with industrial oil
palm plantations, whose production would be destined for exportation. Such a rate
of conversion can only cause deep-seated tensions over land.

Sime Darby is one of three companies controlling palm oil production in Liberia. The Malaysian company operates in 21 countries and describes itself as “the world’s largest palm oil producers”. Sime Darby is also a founder member of the controversial Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) which has a certain number of principles and criteria related to sustainability and community ‘s land rights. Unfortunately, regulating these principles and criteria is left to Sime Darby itself; clearly self-regulation is not appropriate in instances of resource exploitation such as this.

Friends of the Earth Liberia decided to conduct an independent review in 2012 of Sime Darby’s practices in Liberia. The results of the review show that the contract signed between the government and Sime Darby could be the source of
serious conflict in the coming years: not only were communities left out of the
process when the contract was drawn up but more worryingly, even government representatives admit they were not fully aware of its implications.

The report also points to a glaring lack of adherence to concession protocol relating to the protection of community’s land rights (much of which has been held in common and thus has no land title attached that would protect it from seizure), environmental protection, and the building of infrastructure such a schools and hospitals (what has been built is accessible only to employees, not the community as a whole). The Friends of the Earth report provides an in-depth analysis of Sime Darby’s Liberian operations, including the larger ties to Europe’s energy demands.

Europe is an importer of Liberia’s palm oil, part of a questionable policy of using what are assumed to be more sustainable alternatives to petroleum but which often result in massive deforestation and polluting fires. Besides indispensable local opposition to block any new factory project, we also have to convince the European decision- makers to adopt policies that will enable us to reduce our demand for ‘sustainable’ agrofuels, and thus the environmental and human rights burden on countries such as Liberia.

The target of producing 10% of the energy used in the road transport industry from renewable energy resources by 2020 must be abandoned because the growing demand for agrofuels is the main cause of the European deficit in vegetable oil. Structural measures for actively reducing the consumption of fuel must be put in place: the relocalisation of the economy, the development of public transport and the fight against urban sprawl.

Friends of the Earth report is available here.

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“Profit, profit, profit! Where do they mention heritage, heritage, heritage?”

Disgruntled Twitter groups such as SAVEThe4Chimneys!, in support of preserving Battersea’s iconic Power Station, are campaigning online against plans to knock down and ‘replace’ the Power Station chimneys.

A Malaysian firm, Sime Darby – responsible for the deforestation of the Orangutan habitat for palm oil – was one of the organisations that bought the 39-acre south-west London site in July for £400m; they are now putting forward plans to destroy these British historical icons. Read more

In November 2008, Red Apes Org, a respected group that campaigns to protect  the orangutans of Malaysia described Ahmad Zubir Murshid as ‘evil’. The group says that oil palm cultivation is a grave threat to the survival of orangutans and that Sime Darby is a part of the problem. Read more

Pink Floyd’s next album cover perhaps?

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