Source: IPS News
By Marwaan Macan-Markar
KRABI, Jul 4 (IPS) - The new governor of this southern province has set his sights on another prize to add to its list of unique features. '’We are aiming to be the palm oil capital of Thailand,’’ says Siwa Sirisoawaluk who has been Krabi’s chief administrator for nine months.
He shares his ambition, standing within easy view of a grove of tall palm trees that produce the kind of bio-fuel that is increasingly in demand globally. These trees, locals say, were introduced some three decades ago and are found by roadsides along with the rubber trees that produce another valuable cash crop.
In the main, however, the area that Siwa presides over, is widely known for such attractive features as wide beaches washed by the Andaman Sea, spectacular limestone cliffs and nature trails through tropical forests.
Krabi’s oil palm plantations account for nearly 40 percent of the 320,000 hectares in Thailand where these trees are grown. Bangkok is hoping to have 1.6 million hectares under oil palm cultivation in the next two decades.
Krabi is expected to take the lead in the country’s oil palm expansion drive, adds Siwa. '’The supply here is not enough to cater to future demand. We want to remain the province having the largest oil palm plantations in Thailand.’’
It is a vision being advanced by officials at the ministry of energy, too. '’You save on oil imports, you help the local farmers growing the oil palm to get a better income and you help to improve the environment,’’ Panich Pongpirodom, director-general of the department of alternative energy development and efficiency, told IPS.
To make this case for the environment, the energy ministry confirmed that the estimated 10,000 petrol stations across the country have to convert by April next year for supplying bio-diesel for which palm oil is pivotal. Major car manufacturers such as Toyota, Honda and Mitsubishi '’have accepted our policy’’ to have regular fuel mixed with two percent of '’renewable fuel,’’ adds Panich.
Yet, as Thailand looks to the fortunes that palm oil offers other South-east Asian countries that are bigger players in the palm oil trade find themselves caught in an escalating debate.
Countries like Indonesia and Malaysia, two of the world’s leading producers of palm oil, are grappling with the question of exactly how green palm oil is. Environmentalists and grassroots groups are taking on governments in the developed and developing world and the private sector on this score.
Friends of the Earth International (FoEI), a global environmental lobby group, drove home this point Tuesday in a critical report about the devastating impact of palm oil plantations in Indonesia, where the government is planning to convert 20 million more hectares into palm oil plantations.
'’Wilmar, the world’s biggest trader in palm oil, is illegally logging rainforests, setting forests on fire and violating the rights of local communities in Indonesia,’’ charged the FoEI report.
And it pointed an accusing finger at European countries for contributing to such havoc on the Indonesian environment, since Europe has emerged as '’one of the world’s biggest oil importers, with palm oil used as an ingredient in many food products and cosmetics, and increasingly as a bio-fuel.’’
'’Europe’s growing demand for palm oil is leading to environmental and social devastation,’’ says Rully Syumanda, forest campaigner at FoEI’s Indonesia office. [..]
For the complete article, please see IPS News
2019 has only just begun, but it is already hard to imagine that there will be other extreme weather events with disastrous consequences such as cyclone Idai happening again this year. In all likelihood, such events will continue to occur as 2019 rolls on. Idai is, once more, proof of how devastating and toxic the mix of climate change, extreme weather events and poverty can be: Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe – countries that rank low in human development but contribute very little to global greenhouse gas emissions – suffer from some of the worst impacts of climate change.
adelphi has relaunched its exhibition Environment, Conflict and Cooperation (ECC) Exhibition to illustrate how unprecedented environmental changes interact with social, political, and economic risks to exacerbate conflict. We invite you to explore our online exhibition and to learn more about urgent issues of our time: climate, energy, migration, extractives, food and water.
Climate security risks are, by all interpretations, a global threat. But when it comes to setting a political climate security agenda, a handful of countries stand out. In an interview with Climate Diplomacy, Michaela Spaeth, Director for Energy and Climate Policy at the German Federal Foreign Office, highlights some of Germany’s goals and challenges in forwarding the issue during its 2019-20 membership in the UN Security Council.
The Planetary Security Conference 2019, which concluded on 20 February, saw a number of workshops being held on the Sahel region and specifically Mali, one of the Conference’s three spotlight regions. These workshops examined the region’s climate-water-security risks as well as the #doable actions and solutions to address these issues.