The oil palm industry was being accused of destroying the environment and killing orangutans, the minister said here over the weekend.
He said he had never received a report on oil palm plantation companies being involved in orangutan killings, he said.
Even if there was an orangutan killing in Kutai, East Kalimantan, it would not be as extreme as one imagined, he said.
"So, we must not believe the accusations made by foreign NGOs on environmental destruction, because they have mostly been inspired by business rivalry," he said.
His ministry was applying high standard environmental preservation procedures to the oil palm industry, Hidayat said.
Investors were interested in investing in Indonesia because the country was applying good environmental management, he said.
Two companies respectively from the Netherlands and Germany planned to invest in Semangke, North Sumatra, with investments worth Rp1.1 trillion.
The oil palm industry is the largest contributor to the country`s non-oil/non-gas exports.
From January to June 2011, the value of oil palm exports reached US$11.13 billion, a significant increase from US$6.12 billion in the same period last year.
The Center for Orangutan Protection (COP) recently reported that the NGO and the Natural Resources Conservation Center (BKSDA) had evacuated at least four orangutans from Muara Kaman sub-district, Kutai Kartanegara district, East Kalimantan, around the concession of PT. Khaleda, a subsidiary of Metro Kajang Holdings Berhad Malaysia and PT. Anugerah Urea Sakti.
The Center of Orangutan Protection urged the society and the government to be proactive in enforcing the law toward trading in preserved animals and bones of endangered species to stop the Orangutan skull trade.
(Uu.F001/HAJM)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
