Palm nutsNon-governmental organisation World Growth has attacked environmental groups like Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth for propagating myths and misconceptions about palm oil, demanding production and exports be restricted.
The group has launched Palm Oil Green Development Campaign, to correct what it calls are the "myths, misconceptions and falsehoods" perpetuated by NGOs against palm oil. Yet, for poor countries, expansion of this crop promises opportunities to reduce both poverty and greenhouse gas emissions.
World Growth chairman Alan Oxley said: “The Greens campaign against palm oil is very short-sighted. The anti-poor message it carries will be enough to tip the scales, already ominously leaning the wrong way, against success at Copenhagen."
Environmental groups have made palm oil a poster child in a wider campaign to pressure developing countries to stop converting forest land to productive agro-industries. They are ignoring the requirement in the Bali mandate that climate change strategies should support, not undermine, economic development.”
World Growth says its campaign will focus on setting the record straight and correcting the falsehoods and misconceptions propagated by western green NGOs.
The programme is based on five principles:
1. Alleviating Poverty through Wealth Creation: Palm oil provides developing nations and the poor a path out of poverty.
2. Sustainable Development: Sustainable development of palm oil in developing nations can and will be achieved through collaboration with industry, growers, and the wider community.
3. Climate and the Environment: Palm oil is a highly efficient, high yielding source of food and fuel, providing an efficient way of producing fossil fuel alternatives and capturing carbon from the atmosphere.
4. Opportunity and Prosperity: Developing nations must be allowed the chance to grow and develop without political intervention by environmental groups or developed nations.
5. Property Rights: Growing demand for palm oil world-wide give smaller land holders in developing countries greater opportunities to make a living off their land, maintain their ownership and support their rights to property and prosperity.
The group has launched Palm Oil Green Development Campaign, to correct what it calls are the "myths, misconceptions and falsehoods" perpetuated by NGOs against palm oil. Yet, for poor countries, expansion of this crop promises opportunities to reduce both poverty and greenhouse gas emissions.
World Growth chairman Alan Oxley said: “The Greens campaign against palm oil is very short-sighted. The anti-poor message it carries will be enough to tip the scales, already ominously leaning the wrong way, against success at Copenhagen."
Environmental groups have made palm oil a poster child in a wider campaign to pressure developing countries to stop converting forest land to productive agro-industries. They are ignoring the requirement in the Bali mandate that climate change strategies should support, not undermine, economic development.”
World Growth says its campaign will focus on setting the record straight and correcting the falsehoods and misconceptions propagated by western green NGOs.
The programme is based on five principles:
1. Alleviating Poverty through Wealth Creation: Palm oil provides developing nations and the poor a path out of poverty.
2. Sustainable Development: Sustainable development of palm oil in developing nations can and will be achieved through collaboration with industry, growers, and the wider community.
3. Climate and the Environment: Palm oil is a highly efficient, high yielding source of food and fuel, providing an efficient way of producing fossil fuel alternatives and capturing carbon from the atmosphere.
4. Opportunity and Prosperity: Developing nations must be allowed the chance to grow and develop without political intervention by environmental groups or developed nations.
5. Property Rights: Growing demand for palm oil world-wide give smaller land holders in developing countries greater opportunities to make a living off their land, maintain their ownership and support their rights to property and prosperity.
