Alina Musta'idah, Jakarta – Indonesia's palm oil industry has denied green activists' claims that it was behind the deforestation that has driven the highly endangered orangutan from its natural habitat.
"The claim is totally wrong and misdirected, we did not open the land at a protected forest and therefore it was impossible for us to kill engendered species in the forest, including the orangutan," Tungkot Sipayung, head of legal affairs and advocacy at the Indonesian Palm Oil Producers Association (Gapki), said on Thursday.
Tungkot said the land concession permits granted by the government were never given for a protected forest. Tungkot criticized environmental group Greenpeace for accusing the palm oil industry as being the main offender in the destruction of Indonesia's rain forests, saying it was committed to a program of reforestation.
On Wednesday, Greenpeace Indonesia slammed the palm oil industry for irreparably damaging the orangutan and the Sumatran tiger's natural habitat. The group also accused US consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble of getting some of its palm oil from "dirty" sources in a report titled "Procter & Gamble's Dirty Secret."
Secretary general of the Indonesian Palm Oil Growers Association (Apkasindo) Asmar Arsjad, said Greenpeace's accusation could potentially kill the livelihood of many palm oil farmers. "The black campaign by Greenpeace will hurt the state and farmers and therefore the government should be cautious of the foreign NGO," he said.
Tungkot said the call for Procter & Gamble to stop purchasing CPO from Indonesian firms was unethical because it would hurt palm oil firms operating legally. He claimed the Greenpeace accusation was driven by a desire to protect the trade in Europe and the United States.
"Europe and the US are not producers of crude palm oil, so this is a trade war. The price of their vegetable oil cannot compete with our CPO price, we need to understand this," he said.
Procter & Gamble purchased some 462,000 tons of palm oil from 2012-2013 according to Greenpeace, much of it derived from plantations located in Indonesia.