Published May 13, 2009

Communities uprooted

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(SINGAPORE) Scores of communities in Malaysia and Indonesia are being uprooted by rapidly expanding palm oil plantations as companies try to meet the expected demand for biofuels, environmentalists alleged yesterday.

Speaking at a two-day seminar on palm oil, the Borneo Resources Institute of Malaysia and the World Wildlife Fund in Indonesia said that land disputes were emerging as one of the biggest problems associated with palm oil.

Environmentalists said that palm oil production has already caused the loss of vast tracts of tropical forest - the natural habitat of scores of animals and other wildlife - and peatlands, which are known to store vast amounts of carbon.

Indonesia and Malaysia, the world's top two palm oil producers, have aggressively pushed to expand plantations amid a rising demand for biofuels, which are considered cleaner burning and cheaper than petrol. In the wake of that push, hundreds of communities have filed complaints with courts in both countries about either being forced off their land or pressured to sell it at cheap prices, the groups said. Many of those affected are impoverished or indigenous communities whose ownership of the land is often not recognised by local authorities.

'The situation is getting critical at the moment. The companies are expanding more and more,' said Kalyana Bujang, director of the Borneo Resources Institute of Malaysia, which has documented 200 court cases in the state of Sarawak alone. 'The communities are caught unaware. They don't know what to do, or where to go.' - AP