Southeast Asia palm oil industry faces new era of accountability
A tractor hulls a load of oil palm bunches at a plantation in Tawau, Malaysia. Pic: AP.
After years of rampant deforestation and environmental degradation, Southeast Asia’s most notorious industry may be turning over a new leaf. At least that’s how eco-NGO’s like Forest Heroes are describing a new transparency policy adopted by Wilmar International, a corporate giant that enlists mills in Indonesian and Malaysian rainforests to extract palm oil, a key material used in a slew of products like toothpaste and potato chips.