Report of Research

The Motherland of Oil Palm [Noboru Ishikawa]

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The Motherland of Oil Palm – a Travel Journal of West Africa Noboru Ishikawa（Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University） 　The landscape of a myriad of oil palm trees has now become a familiar sight in Sarawak, Malaysia where we have been working on our project. Oil palm trees originate from Africa and just like rubber, oil palm has flourished as a commercial crop in insular Southeast Asia, very far from its original birth place. Today, oil palm (Elaeisguineensis) is grown in plantations, and now has considerable impacts on the local communities and ecological environment of Southeast Asia. The following outlines the thoughts that crossed my mind during my field […]

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Introduction of Malaysian Palm Oil Board Library et al. [Jason Hon]

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Malaysian Palm Oil Board Library Location：Bandar Baru Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia Direction 　To get here, it is recommended that you take a taxi. It is quite difficult to find the direction, so please have a map in hand to show the taxi driver. Also, arrange for a pick up time. For further information, please refer here. 　Entrance to MPOB is the same as Petronas, drive past Akademi Kementerian Pertahanan Awam, and MPOB main entrance is next to it. At the entrance, obtain a pass to enter the premise. Leave a copy of personal identification behind eg driver’s licence. The doors are locked automatically. To open them (eg to get to the […]

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Field Investigation Report on Oil Palm Cultivated by Company K and Smallholders in Sarawak, Malaysia　[Yucho Sadamichi]

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Field Investigation Report on Oil Palm Cultivated by Company K and Smallholders in Sarawak, Malaysia Yucho Sadamichi（The National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology） 　This is to report a cooperative survey with Prof. Ubukata, conducted at Company K in Sarawak on 14-21 September 2012. Company K is an oil palm plantation company with a processing mill, which is located in Bintulu, Sarawak. Since this company produces RSPO-certified oil, the company activities are implemented in accordance with RSPO requirements, e.g. compliance with environmental and social laws and regulations, fulfilling cooperative social responsibilities, etc. This certification requires the company to document the related activities. From the documents, our previous surveys obtained […]

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Research Work in Sarawak and Study on Oil Palm Business [Fumikazu Ubukata]

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Research Work in Sarawak and Study on Oil Palm Business Fumikazu Ubukata（Graduate School of Environmental Science, Okayama University） 1. Non-specialist and Area Study 　It always requires a certain amount of courage for an area study researcher to step into uncharted territory. Being a specialist of mainland Southeast Asia, I am not familiar with the history and geography of Malaysia and have no expertise in the language of Malay or Iban. It seems a bit strange then that such a “non-specialist” should join in an area study project outside of his field, but the project might benefit to some degree from the ideas of an outsider. I hope to make a […]

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Oil Palm Smallholding by Longhouse Villagers in Inland Area, Sarawak　[Yumi Kato, Ryoji Soda]

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Oil Palm Smallholding by Longhouse Villagers in Inland Area, Sarawak Yumi Kato（Waseda University Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies） Ryoji Soda（Graduate School of Literature and Human Sciences, Osaka City University） Introduction 　The recent growth of oil palm agriculture in Sarawak, Malaysia is remarkable. In the 1990s, the area planted with oil palm was less than 200,000 hectares. In 2004, it was more than 500,000 hectares and it reached 920,000 hectares in 2010. （Fig.1） Fig.1: The expansion of the area of oil palm agriculture in Sarawak (1991-2009)(ha) Source: Yearbook of Statistics Sarawak, Malaysian Palm Oil Statistics 2007, 2010 　In general, oil palm plantations are created after clear-cutting over a wide range of existing […]

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