Let’s make things simple. No fluff, no excess fat, just lean facts.

As a whole, Malaysia’s real estate covers roughly 330,000kmsq. That’s about the size of Vietnam and just slightly bigger than Norway. In a list of countries measured by land size, Malaysia is 67th largest in the world.

Now imagine something half that size. Something in the order of 165,000kmsq. Which of the world’s countries would fit this geographic mould? It’s about the size of Tunisia, a country that, in 2009, was ranked the most competitive economy in Africa. 165,000kmsq can also be represented by two Austrias. Or stretch your imagination to this: as much as 240 Singapores bolted together side to side. That’s quite a large area.

In Malaysia, that same area is all tropical rainforest. Pristine, tropical and permanent rainforest, where trees bask under the scorching heat of the sun and wild animals roam, hunt and habituate. And every monsoon, this rainforest is marinated with rainfall. That area has been untouched and will remain so for many years to come, with all likelihood that not one building, not a single strip of road, not even a house can ever be built on it.

Our national forestry regulations will ensure that. Malaysia signed a treaty to preserve at least half of its total land area for conservation and biodiversity purposes at the 1992 Rio Earth summit.

With at least 50% of Malaysia’s total land reserved for biodiversity and conservation purposes, that means the remaining 50% can be used for various national objectives. Development. Industrialisation. Commerce. And, of course, residence. But that initial 50% of land reserved for forestry – that stays.

It is so baffling why NGOs often attack Malaysia. These attacks are usually evidence of a conscience of guilt. Looking at how much land other countries have kept as forest, it is easy to see why:

As a child, I used to play trump cards. You’d spar one vehicle against another, comparing stats like top speed or price or horsepower. Whoever had the larger number, wins. I wish they had trump cards for forest land. Because then all the players involved in the world’s stage will know that Malaysia can’t be beaten on this score.

International agreements only require nations to set aside 10% of its total land for biodiversity and conservation.

At 50%, Malaysia is doing so much more than is asked of it. This speaks volumes of her commitment to the environment, not to mention the protection of valuable animal species that live in the forest, because one hectare of land that is kept as permanent rainforest equals one hectare of land which is forfeited in the pursuit of economic progress.

That one hectare could have been used to build schools to elevate Malaysia’s level of literacy and contribute to the pool of talent. That one hectare could have been used to provide comfortable housing for a population whose growth is as certain as death and taxes. That one hectare could have been used to build highways to lubricate the pistons of trade and commerce.

In economics, this is known as opportunity cost: the benefit Malaysia decided to forego as a result of protecting its rainforests. Putting this in monetary terms will provide a clearer picture. From the earlier example, the land Malaysia has set aside as permanent rainforests is equivalent to 240 Singapores.

The productivity of land within the Singaporean border is measured by GDP. In 2011, this land generated US$259 billion. 240 Singapores would mean that Malaysia could have generated as much as US$259 x 240 = US$62,160 billion in revenue to the government, benefitting the poor, educating the young, and improving overall living standards.

But instead, that one hectare is instead kept as rainforest.

And it will be kept as rainforest permanently.

Does that not show how committed Malaysia is to the environment?

The words that are trumpeted by developed countries do not reflect what they have done to their land in the past. Over the last 100 years, so much deforestation had taken place there that everything from responsible stewardship of the environment to rare species of animals and plants were sacrificed in the name of economic progress.

In fact, one can build a powerful case that these developed countries should be implicated as the main culprit of global warming through the foregone carbon sequestration capability of expansive tracts of forest land.

Malaysia’s right to development can only be decided by the hands of the prevailing government. It should not have even the slightest imprint of other nations.

Palm Wood Technology Sdn. Bhd. has been producing palm wood timber for a decade, emerging as competitive player in recent years. The timbers are recycled plantation waste, that are light, highly stable, formaldehyde-free, eco-friendly material.

The company monthly purchases of 10,000 tonnes oil palm trunks may not necessarily be sourced from nearby plantations as not all are receptive to the idea of selling. For large plantations, the profit of the sale is insignificant in comparison to their main business. On the contrary, smallholders welcome the additional income. The timing of the sale is crucial as not all plantations could wait for the collection of trunks when they face the urgent need to do immediate clearing process.

Despite the low cost of the waste material, the palm wood production process unfortunately is expensive. It involves various stages of drying and treatment to ensure a high quality output.

The process begins with the bringing in of 40-50 foot trees to an open area, to be marked. Black circular markings indicate the inner core, which is the softest part of the trunk that is to be thrown away. The logs are then placed under the roof to be sawn to the required size. Knowing how much to cut is an acquired expertise through a process of trial and error.  This process separates the different layers of the logs.

The sawn timbers are moved to the impregnation plant, a vacuum container. The timbers are flushed with borax, a chemical solution from a high-pressured 20-foot deep tank. The treated timbers are then vacuumed again to drain the chemicals. Only 5% of the chemical is actually absorbed by the palm timber, which is sufficient to repel insects and fungus. Termites however are a different problem altogether. They are attracted to all kinds of timber although a study conducted reveals that termites prefer rubber wood seven times more than palm wood.

The following timber drying process is more elaborate.  Steaming of stacked timber is conducted using a high velocity fan in a sauna room, which takes approximately 30-40 days. The timber moisture level of 30-40% is reduced to below 7%, the equilibrium moisture content. Subsequently, dried sawn timbers sometime shrink, requiring further slicing off of the unevenness. Cutting may take away up to 3 cm, an accumulated waste that can be used as fuel to generate steam.

The processed timbers are then placed in a segregation machine, a self-created tool to determine quality based on weight. Sawn timbers that are graded as soft are used in the making of light boards.

Moulding is next, creating uniformed timbers through top and bottom trimming. Another moulding machine trims the sides, ensuring the same thickness of timber for each batch as required by buyers.

To avoid wastage for timbers that are too short, they are placed together and turned into core boards. A standing machine does the buffering and smoothening of the core boards. These core boards are framed to be used as solid doors, or alternatively as table top furniture. The latter option requires the core boards to go through a hot press machine for 20-30 minutes, to be laminated with plywood using PVAC glue. Core boards can either be sandwiched by two plywood boards or alternate layers of plywood for a five layer lamination. Core boards are categorized as light boards.

The palm timber, core boards (door, furniture top) and shelves are products of Palm Wood Technology Sdn. Bhd. Further veneering process is done externally by a different factory. This smoothen the finished product as well as create options for cherry or oak veneer or even coloured timber.

Frederick Kugan, Indra P. Sunjoto, Heidi Henry William of the Sabah Forestry Department presented a paper on “Malua BioBank Project: A Model for Wildlife Conservation?” at the Sabah Wildlife Conservation Colloquium 2012 (SWCC 2012).

The Malua BioBank was created in an innovative public-private partnership with the Sabah State Government as an investment in the rehabilitation and protection of the Malua Forest Reserve. It is located in Malaysia on the island of Borneo. This revolutionary model for rainforest conservation, seeks to rehabilitate and preserve 34,000 hectares (80,000 acres) of critical habitat for orangutan and other wildlife. It is also here that trees of the Dipterocarpaceae family stand, and water catchment for the Kinabatangan Hydrology System built. Malua has even been certified as well managed forest by Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) since 13/06/2011.

The paper reveals that Malaysia is unfortunately experiencing a period of timber famine.  Despite the loss of forest land, there is still 59% of green covering left.

In a comparison, forest revenue is valued at RM446 million or RM124.00 per hectare per year, a figure that is expected to drop to RM50 million, or RM100 per hectare per year until 2030, where it would pick up again; oil palm has a return of RM1,000.00 per hectare per year. Forest yield is therefore contrastingly 33 times less. The value of forest yield could however be increased through eco-tourism as well as its capability of being a carbon sink.

As the figures obviously differentiates the economic worthiness of each pursue, it illustrates the Malaysian conservation efforts clearly. Despite the tempting value of oil palm returns, Malua, which was gazetted in 1961 proves to be the vital evidence of what we are preserving for the future generations. Personally, it is proof that the Malaysian palm industry adheres faithfully to all national wildlife and land stewardship laws in Malaysia.

For those who are not familiar with the tropical trees, oil palm tree may be easily mistaken for coconut palm tree. The former however is short in comparison to coconut palm tree, with straight, thick trunks and massive fronds at the top. The large bunches of oil palm fruits (each palm fruit is the size of large plum) are reddish when ripe unlike coconuts that turn brown.

The oil palm tree produces two types of oil; palm oil is derived from the carotene and Vitamin E-rich mesocarp while palm kernel oil is extracted from the kernel (or seed) of the fruit. The major difference between these two is the fatty acid content. Palm oil consists mainly of palmitic acid (44%), oleic acid (40%), and linoleic acid (10%) while palm kernel oil contains lauric acid (48%)and myristic acid (16%) The chemical characteristics of the two oils differ in terms of the fatty acid composition. Differences in chemical composition reflect themselves in differences in physical properties as well.

Unlike oil palm, coconut palm produces only coconut oil from the kernel. Coconut oil contains about 87% saturated fatty acids in the form of lauric acid (45%), myristic acid (17%), palmitic acid (8.%), caprylic acid (8%), capric acid (6%). The unsaturated fatty acids in coconut oil are oleic acid (6%) and linoleic acid (2%).

The fatty acid profile of coconut oil is almost identical to that of palm kernel oil. Both have very high contents of lauric acid, resulting in them being referred to as lauric oils.

There is hope amid the gloom in the tone of some of the papers presented over at Sabah Wildlife Conservation Colloquium. Despite questioning whether we are harmonizing wildlife and biodiversity conservation with national development, Laurentius N. Ambu’s paper on “Harmonising Biodiversity Conservation and Development in Sabah” provides a neutral view of the ecosystem and wildlife, the downside as well as the achievements.

He presented the problems of ecosystem being threatened as there is no riparian forest between plantation and the main river, as well as an absence of buffer zone between plantations and rainforest. The clearing of mangroves, highly fragmentized forest islands, pollution from plantations on the Sukau river, and garbage dumping near Bukit Garam at Kinabatangan river are also evident threats. Wildlife is also threatened with poaching and killings.

The abundance of natural resources however, will provide sustainable environmental services for the future through proper management. Collective effort, and not only by the palm industry, on a proactive social, economic and biological analysis would address land use practices and forest management. A balance can then be made between the pursue of agriculture land use in clearly planned and sustainable manner and the survival of the wild species in more than just basic core areas and forest corridors.

An aerial survey conducted shows an estimated presence of 11,000 orangutans and 5,900 proboscis monkeys in Sabah despite the establishment of oil palm plantations. This reflects the hard work done by Sabah in the last decade through implementation of wildlife corridors and strict law enforcement. But the work does not end there.

There must be land-use planning to stop further fragmentation and new conversion of forests and subsequent management under sustainable natural forest management practices. Reservoirs of wildlife must be maintained until natural processes can be reinstated. These, together with State Action Plans on rhinoceros, orangutan, and elephant would ensure our agricultural sustainability and environmental conservation.

It is possible to meet the reality of the world and the fantasy of the NGOs. The former will struggle with food shortage issue in the years to come unless there is a solid plan on feeding the population. The latter screams for zero tolerance of the higher-yield perennial crop, oil palm. The realists however know one thing, we need to have food on the table and palm oil is the cost efficient source of food.

It is a difficult situation with the green NGOs wanting to stop oil palm cultivation because they blame it for every single environmental problem that emerge, right from global warming, deforestation to wildlife extinction. Probably they think they know best, because as developed countries, there is hardly any forest or wild animal left in their own backyard. So the best way to make up for the environmental destruction that they have caused before is through dictating the agriculture option, forestry management, and economic development of developing nations.

The Malaysian palm oil industry has managed to address these two needs without needing to sacrifice one over the other. Oil palm cultivation takes place on degraded, logged lands. With the utilization of  unproductive pieces of land for agricultural production, we are saving the precious rainforests and preserving wildlife habitats.

Good forestry management and monitored expansion of oil palm plantations allows a developing rate of less than 5% for oil palm planting as well as replanting in Malaysia. Even on a global scale, the 8.5 million hectares of oil palm has the lowest land use compared with over 58 million hectares of land used for soybean. As such, oil palm plays a miniscule role in total forest reserve depletion while still maintaining our global food supply – a definite win-win situation at hand.

 Name:                  Sean Whyte

Occupation:        CEO of Nature Alert

Nationality:         British

Last Location:    certainly not at the Sabah Wildlife Conservation Colloquium 2012

A tendentious man who acquired fame through malicious attacks on the palm oil industry, and not a Canadian footballer as stated by Wikipedia, (imagine the horror of having the same name with someone who is fixated on tarnishing an industry that has brought overwhelming changes to the lives of the deprived and the hopefuls).

His signature is flagrant abuse of technology through the flooding of spam emails. This is done regretfully with hope that the irresponsible behaviour would bore massive destruction (seriously?), subsequently bringing about the changes that HE wanted.

Could Sean Whyte then be a temperamental 2 year old? If any, his “I-want-it-done-my-way behaviour seems to suggest so. But could he also have missed his English classes? Strangely, he is adamant in wanting the “No Kill Policy” to be passed, dismissing the “Zero Tolerance to Wildlife Killing”, as something totally different.

In truth, both basically give the same amount of protection to animals. His deliberate absence, an outright refusal to have a face-off with the Malaysian Palm Oil Council could stem from cowardice or incomprehensive knowledge of the subject matter.

But one thing is for sure, he had found time to write (in between spamming) on the orang utans. Interestingly, I failed to see any mentioning of the book sale to be donated to any of the ape fund.

At the end of the day, you see a man, or a boy, depending on how you see it, who saw an opportunity in cashing in on the endearing animals, benefitting on the so called save-the-orangutan-mission trips to tropical countries. He is probably sipping his coconut drink right now from his hammock at some remote resort, grinning at his foolish followers, girl’s scouts included!

I read with interest the key points of Erik Meijaard’s “Biodiversity Conservation and Development in South-East Asia” during the Sabah Wildlife Conservation Colloquium 2012 (SWCC 2012). It explores the various causes of biodiversity threats, which include economic developments, deforestation, wildlife trade, and hunting.

The lowest species diversity occurs in agricultural land use, followed by intermediate diversity in agroforestry systems and plantation (which would include the oil palm plantation), while the selectively harvested forest has species diversity almost as high as in primary forests.

He noted the presence of multiple causes of deforestation with South East Asia having the highest annual deforestation rate in the tropics. Palm oil is not suggested as the sole cause. But the palm oil industry is associated with high levels of wildlife killings including pigs, monkeys, orang utans, and tigers, which may need to be addressed through instilling values on wildlife appreciation and strict enforcement of the current law. The “No Kill Policy”, expressed by the writer as part of the solutions is however redundant. Instead the “Zero Tolerance to Wildlife Killing”, which was the conclusion of the SWCC 2012 makes more sense in upholding the already available animal protection law.

The trade and hunting of wildlife animals contribute to an estimated 10-20 billion US dollars annually. The legitimacy of the staggering 3.5 million animals exported from South East Asia could be questioned. Some unlucky species such as the pangolin, are used in traditional medicine, subsequently leading to its near extinction. The orang utan species are also suffering. It is said that in Kalimantan alone, 1950 to 3100 orang utans are killed every year.

There was no specific figure or percentages assigned by him to the Malaysian palm oil industry, in association with wildlife killings but it has always been indiscriminately held responsible for almost everything under the sun that goes wrong. It was proposed that the development goals be reconciled with environmental and social targets through  by maintaining biodiversity through maximizing permanent forests and forest connectivity, optimizing land use in multifunctional landscapes, and developing monocultures on degraded lands. Presently, the Sabah forest has been stabilized unlike Sarawak and Indonesia. With proper planning, especially in land utilization, the rest could also follow suit.

Seven billion of us on earth and the planet seems to be getting tinier by the minute. According to U.S Census Bureau, by 2043, the population would have turned nine billion, an increase of 29 percent. With such growth in population, the number of mouths to feed is rapidly increasing. We need a bigger pie that allows everyone to get a bite before the onset of a global food shortage.

Tan Sri Datuk Dr. Yusof Basiron of Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC), Malaysia presented a paper on Balancing Sustainable Development of the Malaysian Palm Oil Industry with Conservation at the Sabah Wildlife Conservation Colloquium 2012 on this subject. In his paper, it is highlighted that the risk of food scarcity is high but there is room for some sense of security stemming from the knowledge that we do have something substantial to count on. Palm oil.

Palm oil and its derivatives are used in different industries as well as for dissimilar purposes. On the whole, 80% of palm oil becomes our source of food, but another 15% goes to oleochemical, while 2% is for biofuel. But the potential remains largely untapped through palm biomass.

It noted that palm oil currently accounts for 26.8% of global oils and fats supply. Its growth is spurred by the inrelenting demand for food. Moreover, being readily available and affordable, it provides a reliable supply. Plus the same size of land yields more when planted with oil palm rather than soyabean, sunflower, or rapeseed. Oil palm in comparison produces 11 times more than soyabean, 10 times more than sunflower, and 7 times more than rapeseed. Being a high land-productivity crop is key to sustainable production.

As such Malaysian palm oil uses only 2.0% of total world land area for oil bearing crops despite contributing to 11.4% of global oils and fats supply. It enables Malaysia to stay committed to its 1992 Rio Summit pledge of maintaining at least 50% of total land area under forest, keeping deforestation at a minimal rate of 0.43 million hectare from 2005-2010.

MPOC took a step further in balancing economic development with environmental conservation through the establishment of Malaysian Palm Oil Wildlife Conservation Fund (MPOWCF), to emphasize the importance of biological conservation. Additionally, MPOC provides ongoing program to create greater awareness among plantation management and workers biodiversity and conservation.

With these long terms efforts to protect the environment and wildlife, especially through the selection of a higher yield oilseed for the limited arable land left, sustainable development is achievable without neglecting conservation.

Read your labels. It’ is something that many of us would not have time to do between pushing our heavily loaded trolley, dismissing the offering of a new flavour for that sugary yoghurt drink, and looking for the next item on our grocery list. But you have to most of the times, especially with processed food or even a favourite food. Give yourself a few seconds to compare especially on items that involve fats and oils. You would be surprised.

I picked up a margarine stick, which is made from vegetable oil. It is higher in “good” fats (polyunsaturated and monounsaturated) than butter. But the down point is, this ‘healthy’ substitute of butter has trans fat because the oil had to be processed to turn it into solid. The more solid it is, the more trans fat it had, which means that they are not created equal. Its solidity signals trans fat, whereby stick margarines contain more trans fat than tub margarines.

Sighing, I turned to the creamy, luscious, aromatic butter, and frowned upon the lack of nutritional information on some of the brands. I do recall however that margarine triumphed because butter, being made from animal fat, contains cholesterol and high levels of saturated fat that steered the health enthusiasts away. That was until they found out that the trans-fat in margarines was the greater evil, scientifically linked to clogged arteries and heart diseases as well as raising “bad” LDL cholesterol and lowering “good” HDL cholesterol.

Then there is the table spreads. They are blends of different oils. Curious over the various health claims printed on the cover top, I proceeded to look at the bottom information. Some was not impressive. The partially hydrogenated soy bean spread had both the ‘goodness’ of the demonic trans-fat and saturated fat.

I grabbed another tub. One after another failed my expectations until I stumbled upon a vegetable blend with the ingredient of palm fruit oil. This is the key ingredient in maintaining a spreadable consistency as palm oil is naturally semi-solid requiring no hydrogenation in solid fat formulations. But the magnitude of the fats still hovers.

Not satisfied with the high saturated fat content (although trans fat free) of the mainly olive oil table blend, I eyed its competitor. Again it disappoints me. The canola spread was similar.

Thankfully, I saw the purely palm oil blend, an additional option for our morning breakfast toasts. There in my hand was the almost perfect formula – a lower saturated fat, zero trans-fat, strictly no cholesterol, high spreadibility, plus beneficial carotenoids and powerful tocotrienols (a much stronger vitamin E compared to tocopherol). I grinned, satisfied with my new found love.