By offering to take in orangutans from countries that buy palm oil, Malaysia wanted to make these importing powers aware of the need to preserve its environment.
:quality(50)/2023/07/06/64a68815cd1a7_placeholder-36b69ec8.png)
Published
Reading time: 1 min
:quality(50)/2024/08/19/000-363x7qw-66c31620abf9c026765975.jpg)
The primates will be able to remain in their natural habitat. Malaysia called on Monday, August 19, on the countries to which it had once promised to offer orangutans to renounce these gifts and finally let them go free. Last May, Kuala Lumpur announced that it would offer these great apes, threatened with extinction, to the powers that buy its palm oil, notably the European Union and India.
The world’s second largest producer of palm oil, Malaysia thus weighed this very lucrative activity for its economy against the protection of primates. Its “orangutan diplomacy” had caused an outcry among environmentalists, despite the Malaysian Minister of Raw Materials’ appeal to the entire sector: he invited them to collaborate with biodiversity protection associations to preserve the habitat of these great apes. Palm oil is notably used in processed food products as well as in cosmetics.
Beyond this announcement, Malaysia’s Minister of Raw Materials, quoted by several Malaysian media outlets, also reports that plots of forest “high conservation value”will be kept on oil palm plantations. “These areas allow orangutans to move freely, find food and breed without interference from humans or other activities.”he said in particular.
