She said the previous slogan “Sawit Anugerah Tuhan” under former minister Mohd Khairuddin Aman Razali had failed to have the desired effect.
“This resulted in anti-palm oil NGOs gaining and reclaiming lost propaganda ground and further damaging the reputation of Malaysian palm oil,” she said in a statement.
To fight these international lobbyists, the Seputeh MP said Zuraida needs an urgent and concerted effort from her ministry and its various agencies.
During her term, from 2018 to 2020, Kok said she had convinced the then Pakatan Harapan Cabinet to adopt four proposals.
Among them were to cap the total oil palm cultivation area at 6.5 million hectares and to stop fresh planting of oil palm in new peatland areas.
She had also proposed a ban on converting natural forest reserves for oil palm and to make plantation maps available for public access and information.
These efforts, Kok said, were designed to provide assurance of the government’s commitment and seriousness to the international community of being responsible and environment friendly. They were also designed to meet world standards.
Malaysia has been fighting anti-palm oil sentiments and smear-mongering by several groups and NGOs which often accuse the industry of being a major cause of tropical deforestation, loss of wildlife habitats and endangering several iconic wildlife species.
Kok said the Malaysian Palm Oil Council, under the ministry, had been countering, with a certain degree of success, propaganda against palm oil by NGOs in the West and also within Malaysia.
Since 2020, the ministry had implemented the collection of an additional RM1 cess for every tonne of palm oil produced for reforestation and wildlife conservation in Malaysia, she said.
“This cess order was subsequently gazetted and cess collection is already in progress.”
She said about RM18.5 million is likely to be collected in 2021 and streamed entirely to the Malaysian Palm Oil Green Conservation Fund.
Kok hoped Zuraida would continue these conservation efforts, using financial resources under this cess collection.