Figure 1 – Oil Palm VS Total Grain & Oilseed Area Oil palm is
the main agricultural crop of major palm oil producer countries
such as Malaysia and Indonesia where it occupies 13% and 5% of
their land area respectively. Assuming that developing countries
are allowed to use part of their land area for agriculture and
plant the most profitable crops to provide employment, produce
food and generate income, the above figures show that there is
no excessive over exploitation of forests due to planting oil
palm as a cash crop. Nationally, both countries retain much
higher percentages of forest as compared to developed countries
as shown in Fig 2. Figure 2 – Forest in Developed VS Developing
Countries If WENGOs claim that global warming is caused by loss
of forests due to oil palm cultivation, it would be useful to
know that oil palm share of world agricultural land is only 0.22
% as shown in Fig 3. The share of loss of carbon stock
(deforestation) caused by oil palm compared to total global
agriculture is thus assum