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Malaysia
This Week in AsiaPolitics

‘Orangutan diplomacy’: Malaysia plans to gift great apes to ease palm oil deforestation concerns

  • The idea, floated by Commodities Minister Johari Abdul Ghani, would be a play on China’s panda diplomacy
  • A new EU regulation requires palm oil suppliers to prove their products are not contributing to the deforestation that is destroying orangutan habitats

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Manja the orangutan waves a Malaysian flag during a show at the National Zoo in Kuala Lumpur in 2000. Photo: Reuters
Hadi Azmi
Malaysia is turning to its star primate to ease criticism of deforestation in its multibillion-dollar palm oil industry by launching “orangutan diplomacy”, an attempt to ape the success of China’s trailblazing panda diplomacy, which has seen the rare bears leased to zoos across the world.
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The idea, floated by Commodities Minister Johari Abdul Ghani, comes as a European Union (EU) deforestation regulation, which mandates that traders who sell palm oil to the EU prove their products have no links to deforestation, is set to come into effect.

“It is a diplomatic strategy, where we will gift [orangutans] to trading partners and foreign relations, especially in major importing countries such as the European Union, India and China,” Johari said while speaking at a forum on biodiversity at the Malaysian Palm Oil Green Conservation Foundation (MPOGCF) on Tuesday.

He added that Malaysia needs to show palm oil importing nations that it is a sustainable producer and is committed to protecting forests and environmental sustainability.

“Malaysia cannot take a defensive approach to the issue of palm oil.”

A rainforest jungle in Borneo, Malaysia, destroyed to make way for oil palm plantations. Photo: Shutterstock
A rainforest jungle in Borneo, Malaysia, destroyed to make way for oil palm plantations. Photo: Shutterstock
Malaysia, alongside neighbouring Indonesia, accounts for 85 per cent of the world’s palm oil production.
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