Culture Society, Identity and Belonging
Malaysia has launched a controversial scheme modelled on Beijing’s “panda diplomacy” which encourages importers of its palm oil to “adopt” orangutans by helping to protect their habitat. Initially the plan was to send the orangutans abroad, but after an outcry from animal welfare groups the government said on Sunday it will keep them on the island of Borneo, where fewer than 105,000 “men of the forest” live in the wild. Malaysia relies on palm oil for 3 per cent of its GDP and is trying to prove it can be farmed sustainably, but has fallen foul of an EU ban on agricultural products cultivated on land deforested after 2020. The country’s plantations and commodities minister has pledged to keep forest cover at 54 per cent to enhance biodiversity protection. Between 2001 and 2019, Malaysia lost an area of tree cover nearly as large as South Carolina.
