Protests stop PNG island oil palm project
Massive local and international protest has stopped a Malaysian company’s plan to grow oil palms on nearly all of a pristine Papua-New Guinean island.
The PNG agriculture minister, John Hickey, who first approved the plan has now confirmed that it’s been dropped. The palm oil was to be exported for agrofuel production.
The Malaysian Vitroplant Ltd. had intended to clear away 60,000 hectares of rain forest on the island of Woodlark, which lies about 280 kilometres from Papua New Guinea and has a total area of about 85,000 hectares.
The 6,000 islanders would have lost their culture, their hunting grounds and their lands for growing food. The palm plantation would have destroyed almost all the still intact flatland rain forest of the island and with it a breathtaking biodiversity. Marine life along the island’s coasts would also have been destroyed by wastes produced by the palm oil project.
Almost without exception the islanders resisted the plan, backed by pressure from environmental activists around the globe. Almost 8,500 people sent protest letters just through the Germany-based “Rettet den Regenwald” (Save the Rain Forest) website (
http://www.regenwald.org).
Rettet den Regenwald has started another protest campaign asking for letters to demand that the European Union give up its plan to mandate 10% agrofuels in transportation by 2020.
Even the EU’s Environment Commissioner, Stavros Dimas, conceded in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation on 14 January 2008: "We have seen that the environmental problems caused by biofuels and also the social problems are bigger than we thought they were. So we have to move very carefully."
A draft internal report gives the EU Commission a scathing assessment of the European agrofuel plans and warns of devastating ecological and social problems resulting from them.
On 23 January 2008 the Commission intends to present a climate and energy package of which the agrofuel quota is a core element.
For more on the devastation caused by palm oil see http://sydney.indymedia.org.au/story/protest-against-palmoil-german-candle-production.
The Malaysian Vitroplant Ltd. had intended to clear away 60,000 hectares of rain forest on the island of Woodlark, which lies about 280 kilometres from Papua New Guinea and has a total area of about 85,000 hectares.
The 6,000 islanders would have lost their culture, their hunting grounds and their lands for growing food. The palm plantation would have destroyed almost all the still intact flatland rain forest of the island and with it a breathtaking biodiversity. Marine life along the island’s coasts would also have been destroyed by wastes produced by the palm oil project.
Almost without exception the islanders resisted the plan, backed by pressure from environmental activists around the globe. Almost 8,500 people sent protest letters just through the Germany-based “Rettet den Regenwald” (Save the Rain Forest) website (
http://www.regenwald.org). Rettet den Regenwald has started another protest campaign asking for letters to demand that the European Union give up its plan to mandate 10% agrofuels in transportation by 2020.
Even the EU’s Environment Commissioner, Stavros Dimas, conceded in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation on 14 January 2008: "We have seen that the environmental problems caused by biofuels and also the social problems are bigger than we thought they were. So we have to move very carefully."
A draft internal report gives the EU Commission a scathing assessment of the European agrofuel plans and warns of devastating ecological and social problems resulting from them.
On 23 January 2008 the Commission intends to present a climate and energy package of which the agrofuel quota is a core element.
For more on the devastation caused by palm oil see
http://sydney.indymedia.org.au/story/protest-against-palmoil-german-candle-production.
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Ergänzungen
More related reports
Palm oil is a top income earner in Papua New Guinea:
Deadly palm oil in your shopping trolley - action you can take:
Wikepedia about Woodlark Island:
Biofuels versus Native Rights:
If you wish to take part in the protest
Scroll down to the end of the German text. There you will see the five EU Commissioners your protest will be sent to.
Under that is the letter in English.
Empty box with down-arrow is for your gender. Herr=Mr, Frau=Ms, Familie=family, Firma=firm, Vorname=given name, Nachname=surname, Straße=street, Hausnr=number in the street, PLZ=post code, Ort=place name, Staat=country (Australien if you're participating from Australia), Informationen auf diesem Computer speichern=save these details on your own computer (don't if you're not comfortable with that, it'll still work), Mail versenden=click to send your participation
Philippinos try to stop biofuel madness
The author of the Biofuels Act of 2007, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, is now recognizing that the conversion of agricultural land to biofuels production is threatening the food supply.
She said on Jan. 14: "Because the Philippines has a small land area, biofuel production will tend to encroach on food production. Corporations are already searching for millions of hectares for jatropha alone. We have to step on the brakes and decelerate."
Jatropha plants produce oilseeds which are used to produce biodiesel. Also, Rep. Roilo Golez called on the House to open an inquiry into the impact of the biofuel program, saying: "There seems to be a mad rush to develop biofuels. A lot of resources are being committed, including millions of hectares of land and billions of pesos, on something that is now being debated."
10,000 hungry people demonstrated in Jakarta
Three South Asia countries have been hit by food price demonstrations this week, as a hyperinflationary wave of food prices rolls across the world. Since mid-December, there has been a leap of 55% in the prices of a major index of agricultural products, in just four months.
In Indonesia on Jan. 14 and 15, there were demonstrations of 10,000 in Jakarta protesting a 90% increase in the price of soya beans, a basic source of protein and a staple of the Indonesian diet. The government is trying emergency measures to increase local production, but the head of the national farmers' union says he expects the problem to get worse, not better.
There were also demonstrations in Pakistani cities this week because of wheat shortages, where very high prices are causing wheat needed in Pakistan to be exported to Afghanistan instead; and in Egypt, due to the sharp rise in the price of rice.
Superinflation of foodstuffs is being reported across Eurasia; these are the first instances of it triggering major unrest.
But problems of unrest and trouble in Kenya in Africa and Zimbabwe, for example, are strirred up by the cost of living and basic necessities in all poor countries.
The first responce is to blame the government.