The palm-oil industry is often vilified for the plight of orang-utans – but mud-slinging won't save them, argues primatologist Isabelle Lackman
Today orang-utans are found only in Borneo and Sumatra, where they are threatened by palm oil plantations. What is the conflict?
There's a clash over land. Orang-utans like lowlands, but this is where agriculture is most productive. Orang-utans also pull up oil palm trees and eat them, because the flesh is very sweet – they can be a real pest for the plantations.
Is banning the palm oil industry a solution, as some activist groups have advocated?
No. Palm oil is a huge source of revenue. You can't expect the country to give up its main source of income. Anyway, the crop is not evil: it's the way it is produced. The anti-palm-oil campaign raised awareness, but now it's time to be more realistic and look at practical solutions.
Is there any truth to accusations of brutality levelled at the industry?
Environmental activists are sometimes ridiculous in the claims they make. The anti-palm-oil lobby makes horrible claims that are obviously not true, like that the whole palm oil industry is evil and all the plantations are slaughtering baby orang-utans. That happens, but it is not everyone. But because it's very emotional, and there are lots of gory pictures, it allows activists to use facts that are not verified.
Of course, it goes both ways. Plantation owners will say they don't encroach on protected areas. This is true, but more than half of all orang-utans live outside protected areas. Plantation owners also say orang-utans can survive in plantations on the fruit of the oil palm. This is not true. They can go in and eat it, but no animal can live only on oil palm. It would be like you living only on peanuts.
Are there efforts to work with the industry?
The industry has evolved. Some companies have now joined the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and some are starting to be certified as sustainable. But this is expensive, and because palm oil has been demonised, people often want to boycott it entirely – which penalises those companies that do try to do good.
What can people outside Malaysia do to help the orang-utans?
People can learn about sustainable palm oil and the RSPO, and even become members. At the moment there is overwhelming membership from the palm oil industry, and very few NGOs.
Also, we have launched a £1 million appeal with the World Land Trust to fund the purchase of a strategically placed corridor of land linking two protected areas. The orang-utans use it, and unless it is protected it will go to a palm oil company. That's what we want to avoid.
Are you optimistic about the orang-utans' survival?
The outlook is completely site-dependent. Some areas in Borneo are deforested on a very large scale; others are better protected. Overall, I would say that things are slowly getting better, mostly due to relatively good government support. In some places, the government has even increased the size of the protected areas. That's not enough, but they are moving in a good direction.
This article appeared in print under the headline "Orang-utan alliance"
Profile
Isabelle Lackman is a primatologist and co-founder of Hutan, a non-governmental organisation that aims to preserve wildlife in Sabah in Malaysian Borneo. Today there are only an estimated 60,000 orang-utans left
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