Paje bats for oil palm plantations on idle land
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines—Environment Secretary Ramon Paje proposed the conversion of some eight million hectares of idle, denuded and unproductive lands across the country into oil palm plantations.
Paje, who attended the launching of the Mindanao Barangay (village) StraTreegic Forest Project here, said the country was losing P800 billion each year in production opportunities from land left idle.
Paje said the prospects of generating more cash out of idle land could be gleaned from the experience of Indonesia, which he said makes up to $50 billion a year although it has only six million hectares planted to oil palm.
“That is almost the same as our national budget,” Paje said.
Paje said that if plans push through, the country could be earning more than Indonesia does from oil palm plantations.
But Paje’s proposal was met with cold shoulders here.
For Cooperative Development Authority (CDA) Region 10 director and environmentalist Orlando Ravanera, food security and ecological integrity should be the government’s focus.
Ravanera said that converting idle and denuded land into palm oil plantations was not in line with the food security and ecological integrity that the BSFP aimed for.
“Land should be used for food security, not for biofuel,” Ravanera added.
Ravanera said the government should make sure that the people eat sufficiently as land use is a matter of survival.
Bishop Melmar Labuntog of the United Church of Christ in Cagayan de Oro, who is also chairman of the Panalipdan Mindanao (Defend Mindanao), said idle land should be planted to food crops to feed the country.
Labuntog said that instead of planting oil palm on denuded land, reforestation should be undertaken to ensure ecological balance that would help farmers yield more.
Ravanera said one factor in the decreasing food production was the failure of logging companies to replant as agreed, and the continued operation of illegal loggers.
He urged Paje to strictly implement environmental laws and said reforestation was a must.
“DENR should reforest the land and not plant palm. That is the mandate of the DENR,” Ravanera said.
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