The news
Malaysia on Sunday launched the controversial “orangutan diplomacy” program in a bid to push countries to continue importing palm oil despite the known risks it poses to the animals’ habitat and survival.
The program enables importers to “contract“orangutans in the country. The government will also try to limit deforestation, a common consequence of palm oil plantations, Malaysia’s resources minister said on Sunday.
Animal welfare activists had criticized the original proposal to send orangutans abroad. Experts believe that there are fewer than 105,000 orangutans in the wild, on the Malaysian island of Borneo alone.
Malaysia and other Southeast Asian countries have been trying to give palm oil products a cleaner sheen since the European Union prohibited products linked to deforestationThe palm oil industry generates more than $39 billion per year of the world’s GDP and employs 3 million people worldwide, one million of whom live in Malaysia. It is used in everything from lipstick to pizza.
