MEDIA RELEASE PR36335
'Morally Indefensible' Anti-Palm Oil Campaigns Threaten World's Poor, Reveals New Study
BANGKOK, Sept. 29 /PRNewswire-AsiaNet/ --
Report exposes how attempts by environmental NGOs to restrict
production, trade of palm oil (a sustainable oil) would harm successful
strategies to end poverty, restrict opportunities for developing countries to
reduce emissions
Today at the United Nations climate change meeting in Bangkok, the NGO
economic and environmental consequences for developing countries of misguided
campaigns by Western "green" groups to halt production of palm oil, the most
sustainable vegetable oil available. In particular, the study's provocative
findings demonstrate that palm oil has been more effective than most
commodity crops in reducing poverty.
World Growth Chairman Alan Oxley explains: "The commitment of environment
activists to preserve the environment is commendable. Yet, when good
intentions are prosecuted in way that would force poor countries to give up
successful strategies to reduce poverty, they must be condemned as morally
reprehensible.
"Palm oil is a highly sustainable, energy efficient crop, generating
nearly 10 times the energy it consumes -- compared to a ratio of 2.5 for
soybeans and 3 for ripe oilseed. More importantly, its production has been
commended by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank as effective in
alleviating poverty in the developing world."
In spite of these significant benefits, environmental NGOs like Friends
of the Earth and Greenpeace are running well-funded but poorly substantiated
campaigns to disparage palm oil. Tactics include:
- pressuring cosmetic and food companies to boycott palm oil;
- lobbying governments to impose trade bans; and
- pushing measures to limit palm oil production in the new UN
climate change treaty.
An international deal was struck at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit that any
global strategy to tackle climate change should not undermine the capacity of
developing countries to raise living standards of the millions still living
in poverty. A few environmental activists evidently think that compact can be
torn up.
Oxley concludes, "We need strategies to realize the Agenda 21 program
adopted at Rio, not undermine it. The findings of this new analysis
demonstrate that palm oil is part of the solution, not part of the problem."
To speak with World Growth's experts or find out more about the study,
please email media@WorldGrowth.org or +1-202-320-3965.
the entire World Growth Report
read the Executive Summary
World Growth is a non-profit, non-governmental organization established
with an educational and charitable mission to expand the education,
information and other resources available to disadvantaged populations to
improve their health and economic welfare. At World Growth, we embrace and
celebrate the new age of globalization and the power of free trade to
eradicate poverty and improve living conditions for people in the developing
Source: World Growth
CONTACT: World Growth, +1-202-320-3965, media@WorldGrowth.org
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