Companies importing palm oil from Malaysia will be able to adopt orangutans, but will not be allowed to take them out of the country, Malaysia's commodities minister said Sunday, in a revised version of an environmental conservation scheme announced earlier this year.
Last May, the minister proposed plans to send orangutans abroad as trade gifts in an effort to allay concerns about the impact of palm oil production on orangutan habitat, which often involves clearing forest land.
The program has drawn objections from conservation groups concerned about the welfare of endangered orangutans.
“The animals cannot leave their natural habitat. We have to keep them here. And then we will meet with the countries or buyers of our palm oil, if they want to work together to make sure that this forest can be maintained and preserved forever,” Malaysian Plantation and Commodities Minister Johari Abdul Ghani told a news conference in Sabah, in the north of Borneo island.
Abdul Ghani said that the Sabah region is now home to 15,000 orangutans, while in Sarawak there are around 2,000.
He said funds collected from companies that adopt orangutans will be distributed to non-profit organizations.
The Sabah government will monitor the forest areas that are the habitat of the primates and try to monitor their safety and condition.
Marc Ancrenaz, scientific director of the NGO Forest, said he hopes the program will fund habitat conservation efforts, such as building corridors between fragmented forests that are too small to adequately support wildlife populations.
The “orangutan diplomacy” scheme was first announced in May, after the European Union agreed a ban on imports of commodities linked to deforestation last year.
Malaysia, the world's second-largest palm oil producer, has called the law discriminatory. Palm oil is used in everything from lipstick to pizza. (rd/ab)
