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You Are Here: Home » Africa/International » Activists in Ivory Coast stop palm oil project
Ivory Coast’s main palm oil company, Palmci, on Friday announced it was abandoning a major plantation scheme in the south of the country after opposition by environmentalists to destruction of a forest.
“Palmci has decided to abandon this project in the face of the refusal of certain NGOs to accept the coexistence of environmental preservation and the development of economic activity,” the firm said in a statement.
Scrapping the project would lead to the loss of a potential 1,000 agricultural jobs, 300 more in industry and an investment of 18 billion CFA francs (27.4 million euros / 36.3 million dollars), the statement added.
“It’s a shame for the region,” Franck Eba, Palmci’s spokesman on sustainable development, told AFP, but he explained that opposition from non-governmental organisations had made the scheme “too complicated.”
“We’re satisfied,” said Inza Kone, the coordinator of RASAP-CI, a research and action programme to safeguard primates in the west African nation, but he rejected the idea that ecologists were ideologically opposed to development.
Palmci had planned to promote palm oil production in the forest swamplands of Tanoe in the far southeast of Ivory Coast, a region where rare primates are already at risk of extinction, Kone added.
This unprotected forest territory covers about 12,000 hectares (29,700 acres) between the Ehy lagoon and the Tanoe river, which forms a natural border with Ghana.
Palmci has not altogether given up on its plan and is scouting other areas where it can step up palm oil production, Eba said.
Source: AFP
I’m looking for a producer who can supply me with oil for soap making. I’m trying to build a soap industry in Grand Cape Mount County, Liberia.
Is their anyway, Industry and nature can coexist without one destroying the other. Maybe Corporations should try working within some preservation guidelines to ensure that they wont obliterate their natural resources and cutting themselves off in the long run. Like be a good steward with what you have because it could be all you have, and once its gone its gone. May be the environmentalist could make some request if they ever let a corporation into a preservation, like funding to promote and ensure a species of animals from extinction, stuff like that, you all got work with each other, and stop stomping on each others hopes, and aspirations. Its possible to have ecological friendly Palm oil industry if its done properly. Just got to draw out a plan that fits both sides that’s all.
It there any potential oil palm land in Ivory Coast for investors which will be acceptable to the NGO?
All big companies are now committed to sustainable development giving due consideration for environment. Consultants are employed for due assessments and recommendations before development starts.