While Malaysia has been on the receiving end, especially by Western critics over the handling of the environment and habitat over palm oil or other agri commodities, the Ministry of Plantation Industries and Commodities has been enagaing with NGOs and conservationists like the Malaysian Palm Oil Green Conservation Foundation to ensure sustainable growth is kept paramount.
Among the initiatives undertaken over the years include the setting up of the Borneo Elephant Wildlife Sanctuary to address human-elephant conflict and create a controlled public access sanctuary to better understand and care for these animals.
MPOGCF has also started a programme to plant elephant grass species to encourage the animals to utilize the wildlife corridors and eventually help mitigate human-elephant conflict. Additionally, the Ministry also supports the Heart of Borneo Initiative a joint Declaration initiated this uniquely government-led and NGO-supported programme by the governments of Brunei, Indonesia, and Malaysia in 2007. The programme aims to conserve the biodiversity of the Heart of Borneo for the benefit of the people who rely upon it through a network of protected areas, sustainable management of forests, and other sustainable land uses.
Declaration on Forest and Land Use and the Global Methane Pledge at the 26th Conference of Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC COP-26) held in Glasgow, the United Kingdom, in November 2021. Malaysia’s participation, along with 141 other countries, in this declaration is in line with the country’s Leaders’ Declaration on Forest and Land Use is in line with country’s commitment to continue to maintain at least 50 percent of the country’s land area under forest cover and to strengthen commitment in conservation and sustainable management of forests and other ecosystems and land use including agriculture.
To ensure a more concentrated effort toward environmental preservation, MPIC plans to seek more funding from the Ministry of Finance under Budget 2023. This is also in line with Malaysia’s commitment to realising targets set under the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
