New IPA Study: Misguided Palm Oil Campaigns Won`t Help Orang-Utans, but Will Harm Asia`s Poor

MELBOURNE, Australia--(Business Wire)--
"Misguided campaigns by the Melbourne and Auckland Zoos and activists lack
understanding of why forest and orang-utans are being lost. It isn`t palm oil
it`s poverty," said Tim Wilson, Director of the Intellectual Property and Free
Trade Unit at the Institute of Public Affairs in Melbourne, Australia today.

Mr Wilson`s comments follow the release of Palming off livelihoods? that
analyses anti-palm oil campaigns and finds that poverty is the root cause of
deforestation and orang-utan population loss.

Palming off livelihoods?: The misguided campaign against palm oil is the first
research paper of the IPA`s Sustainable Development campaign and can be found at
www.sustainabledev.org. Palming off livelihoods? has been released in the lead
up to Auckland Zoo`s `Orang-utan caring week` and this week`s Roundtable for
Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) Conference in Malaysia to reinforce the importance
of poverty alleviation to reduce environmental degradation.

"The evidence is clear that if you want to reduce environmental degradation the
best option is poverty reduction by allowing people, especially in poor rural
communities, a sustainable livelihood.

"Sustainable development is delivered through environmental, social and
economically sustainable policy solutions, not cutting off people`s livelihoods.

"Millions of people are trapped in poverty in Asia, and they`re trying to
improve their economic wellbeing, especially in rural communities through
farming. Palm oil is grown because it is an efficient, high-yield, in-demand
agriculture commodity that poor farmers can grow to lift themselves out of
poverty.

"Palm oil is in high demand around the world, including in other poor countries.
Reduced consumption in developed countries will only lead to increased
availability and consumption in the developing world, but poor farmers will
simply get a smaller return.

"If palm oil is blocked, other lower yield seeds will simply be produced, and
they`ll take up more land to produce less.

"If developed world activists want to attack the cause of deforestation and the
loss of orang-utan populations they should attack poverty, not its solution -
sustainable development," Mr Wilson said.

Palming off livelihoods?: The misguided campaign against palm oil can be found
at www.sustainabledev.org.

Institute of Public Affairs
Tim Wilson, +61 (0) 417 356 165
Director, IP and Free Trade Unit

Copyright Business Wire 2009