Protecting the environment is at the heart of Indonesia's future plans for palm oil production and companies caught destroying protected forests are being prosecuted, the country's agriculture minister said on Monday.
Anton Apriyantono said accusations of bad farming practice levelled by non-government organisations were not giving concerned European consumers the correct picture of palm oil production in Indonesia, set to overtake Malaysia this year as the world's top producer.
"Yes there is some uncommon practice destroying some forest land, we admit that, but this is not common practice," Apriyantono told Reuters in an interview in London.
"We will do our job to solve the problem. On forest fires, we have been prosecuting several companies. Some are already in jail," he added. Palm oil, used as a food and in products ranging from cosmetics to biofuel, has come under fire from environmentalists in Europe and America who say the rapid expansion in palm cultivation is responsible for vanishing tropical forests and wildlife.
Comments
Comments are closed.