The Star 28 Mar 10;
KUCHING: Oil palm cultivation in Malaysia is comparatively superior to any large-scale agriculture in the west in terms of sustainability, said Assistant Tourism and Heritage Minister Datuk Talip Zulpilip.
He said that while trees were cut down for oil palm plantations, they did not cause permanent deforestation as planting was done to replace the fallen trees.
He hoped that Sarawakians would not accept the criticisms and baseless allegations made by foreign environmentalists against the state.
Calling the environmentalists “hypocrites”, he said they condemned the state government for destroying forests when their own countries had done so over a hundred years ago.
“After they cut down their own forests for farming, they are telling us not to do so. But if we do not farm our land, we will not progress. Commercial farming leads to better income.
“They (the environmentalist) support traditional farming like shifting cultivation because they say such a practice is eco-friendly but they do not know that shifting cultivation is no better than organised farming,” he said.
Talip, who is also Sarawak Economic Development Cor-poration chairman, was speaking at the AZAM-Petronas Writers Awards 2009 here yesterday.
He said Britain, France, Spain and the United States had cut down their trees long ago to plant wheat, oat and soy but the international environmentalists had never condemned them or boycotted their products.
He said Britain had little forest left as most of the land had been converted for agricultural use, adding that this had resulted in reduced biodiversity and caused the lost of fauna and flora.
“Even the US is cutting down its trees now for agriculture while Spain does not have trees to cut down,” Talip said.
