Our Planet Climate and Geopolitics
Inspired by China’s “panda diplomacy”, Malaysia is launching an orangutan equivalent focused on commerce. Unlike Beijing giving pandas to zoos to enhance, for example, US-China relations, Malaysia is offering to send the great apes to major palm oil-importing markets such as China, India and the EU. According to the country’s commodities minister, the goal is to prove that Malaysia is “committed to biodiversity conservation”. And yet it isn’t. Thanks to palm-oil plantations in Malaysia and India, orangutans are now at critical risk of extinction. In January 2023, Malaysia warned it could stop exporting palm oil to the EU in response to new regulations on commodities linked to deforestation. Wildlife advocacy groups say the money spent on orangutan diplomacy would be better directed to in-country conservation.