Palm oil biodiesel coming in Thailand thanks to private-public partnership

Thailand's state-owned oil firm and private companies in the country announced recently. The partnership will grow palm trees on 23,722 unused acres in the southern part of the country and should be able to produce about 9.6 million gallons a year in the biodiesel production facilities that will soon be built. The cost of the project could be up to US$52.5 million. That's a lot of infrastructure that needs to be put into place before one drop makes it way into a Tuk-tuk, but it's almost always a good thing any time a country sets about to secure its energy independence. I just wonder what's currently on those 24,000 acres the government calls "unused".
[Source: Thai News Agency via Green Car Congress]