European RSPO 2014
Pat Venditti
Greenpeace senior forest campaigner Pat Venditti defended the actions of western NGOs.
“Our focus is on ending deforestation and not tearing down the palm oil industry and the RSPO,” he said.
“Another myth is that there’s a neo-colonial plot [from western NGOs] to stop palm oil production, but that’s not true.”
“[But] in the western, world consumers don’t want to be involved in deforestation, so why are there products being sold around the world with palm oil in them?
“I would like to challenge this idea of neo-colonialism; it’s too convenient an excuse for the Malaysian government to trot out,” he added. “For me, there are problems and we need to get over that hurdle. We need to change the mind-set of the Malaysian government.”
