Ranil seeks to undo Sirisena’s “oily” decision

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe is considering undoing the Presidential ruling banning palm oil cultivation in the country following an environmental report.

During a meeting with the Plantations Minister Navin Dissanayake and the Regional Plantation Companies ( RPCs) on Thursday the Prime Minister has ageed to have another look at lifting the suspension on the cultivation of palm oil.

Companies have stated that they have run into a loss of nearly Rs.500 million based on the seedlings and plants idling in nurseries as the estate owners are unable to plant them ever since a Central Environment Authority (CEA) report has recommended against the cultivation of palm oil.

Minister Dissanayake said that it had been found that the CEA report findings had been “wrongly” informed to President Maithripala Sirisena and based on which the latter had subjected the plantations to a total ban on palm oil cultivation in the country.

In this respect, he explained that the report has recommended that the seedlings should be planted and in this respect, the RPCs should be allowed to go ahead with further cultivation.

The report states: “Cultivation of viable oil palm seeds imported under the approval of the Plantation Ministry so far should be only allowed in areas identified over a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) study.”

In fact, the minister noted that report has identified certain Rainforest Alliance recommendations that call for a environmentally friendly manner in which cultivation could be carried out and which could be carried out by the RPCs as well. (SD)