One major element of the Bruntland Commission’s definition of
sustainability is that the needs of the poor in all nations must be met –
hence, sustainability efforts should address the eradication of
poverty. In this, respect, Malaysia’s oil palm industry is a great
success story. The Federal Land Development Authority (Felda), set up
just over 50 years ago, was tasked with carrying out land development
and resettling the landless in the country, and now has developed
853,313 ha of land and resettled 112,635 families (Ahmad Tarmizi, 2008).
More interestingly, Felda’s efforts have very
successfully helped eradicate poverty amongst settlers, as illustrated
by the data in Table 1. The success of the Felda scheme has helped
ensure that the income levels of the scheme’s settlers has remained well
above the national poverty line, with the gap between settlers’ mean
income and the national poverty line widening consistently.
The oil palm industry is a major source of
employment, and as the planted area grew from 1.2 million hectares in
1980 to 4.69 million hectares in 2009 (a 3.9-fold increase) , the
industry generated a 4.9-fold increase in employment (Table 2). Based on
an estimated 5-persons per household, the total number of people in
Malaysia dependent on the oil palm industry could well be around 2.26
million.
Hence, over the years, the oil palm industry has
consistently contributed towards poverty eradication and narrowing of
the income gap between rural and town-folk, created rural townships
where workers reside and enjoy good quality of life with adequate social
infrastructure (e.g. housing, health, religious facilities),
contributed to social security and peace and reduced migration of labour
force from the rural to urban areas.
