The palm oil plantations of Malaysia | Al Jazeera Blogs: "The biggest concern is the environment - plantations simply do not support the same variety of wildlife as the rainforest they so often replace.
Consider the area surrounding Sabah’s longest river, the Kinabatangan, on Malaysian Borneo. In the past 30 years, 87 per cent of the forest has been converted to plantation leaving the native orang utan, proboscis monkeys and pygmy elephants struggling to survive in isolated patches of fragmented forest. Orangutans, which normally live high in the canopy, are frequently forced to the forest floor and researchers have even discovered nests on palm oil trees.
Then there are the chemicals and fertilisers that many plantations use to stimulate growth and keep bugs at bay.
And the conflicts with indigenous people who have lived for generations in the jungles that are now being converted to plantations. Often they claim customary rights to the land."
'via Blog this'
