60,000 tons of biodiesel leave Malaysia by boat

The first boatload full of 60,000 tons of biofuel made from palm oil left Malaysia for, expectedly, Germany yesterday. While the government is understandably proud of this feat, but as Treehugger notes, making biodiesel in SE Asia often means lots of deforestation. In Malaysia's case, 87 percent of the deforestation in the country was because of new palm oil plantations. Malaysian Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Peter Chin said Malaysia must increase the pace at which oil palm was replanted to realize the Government's vision of achieving 35 tons of oil palm fresh fruit brunches per hectare yearly and 25% palm oil extraction rate by 2020, according to the Malaysian Star.
[Source: Malaysian Star via Treehugger]