Daily Globe British Values, Global Perspective
Related Articles
Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio, through his production company Appian Way, has produced a new environmental cartoon film. Unfortunately, it gets the facts of palm oil wrong – and the hypocrisy of DiCaprio, who is partial to mega-yachts and private jets, lecturing cinema audiences about saving the planet is galling.
Ozi: Voice of the Forest, a new cartoon film, will appear in cinemas in the UAE and around the world in autumn 2024. Like many modern films, it conveys an environmental message, this time about the palm oil business.
It introduces audiences to palm oil, however there is some crucial factual context left out, which should be consumed alongside the film. Palm oil is the most efficient product of its kind, which is why it is so widely used. If you want to make it, you need to cut down fewer trees than with other oils like rapeseed and soybean. That means it costs less for customers and is better for the environment.
The story of palm oil is optimistic and green, not that you would know that from DiCaprio’s new movie. Because its production has developed so well, palm oil can help stopdeforestation. In the last few decades, the business has come a long way in making itself more environmentally friendly.
Malaysia is one of the top palm oil exporters. A Global Forest Watch study shows that changes in how palm oil is made have led to a huge drop in deforestation in Malaysia. The amount of trees being cut down, also called “primary forest loss,” has dropped 70% since its highest point in 2014.
That means that almost all of the palm oil that is sent to other places, like Europe, is recognised as sustainable. A lot of that success is due to the fact that almost all Malaysian palm oil producers have agreed to “not deforestation, peat, or exploitation.”
More good news for people who watch Ozi: Voice of the Forest. The movie is about Ozi, a young chimpanzee. Malaysian orangutans are getting more help than ever to protect their natural rainforest homes thanks to groups like the Malaysian Palm Oil Green Conservation Foundation (MPOGCF).
The Rio Earth Summit in 1992 was the start of a number of projects to protect orangutans and stop trees from being cut down. At the meeting, Malaysia promised to keep 50% of its land covered in forests. The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization’s Global Forest Resources Assessment says that Malaysia beat that goal, with 58.8% of its land area still being forested.
It’s easy to see what that work did. Sabah is the Malaysian state with the most orangutans. It now has 1.9 million hectares of Totally Protected Areas, which are special areas set aside to protect nature’s most beautiful animals. This is more land than was covered in 2007, when it was only 800,000 hectares. The land is still growing. It’s going to be 2.1 million hectares by 2025.
