I refer to the letter NGOs not out to close down palm oil industry .

Chief Executive of Nature Alert , Sean Whyte, claimed that campaigns run by NGOs against the palm oil industry aren’t seeking to ‘put them out of business’.

Such a claim is easy to write, but doesn’t reflect the reality of NGO campaigns that have sought to thwart consumption of the oil seed by promoting consumer boycotts for products that include palm oil.

In Australia some NGOs have actively sought government regulation requiring separate labelling for palm oil on consumer products to aid boycotts.

The effect that these campaigns will have on the one million Indonesian and Malaysians who rely on growing palm oil for their livelihood are strangely absent.

In Whyte’s letter he also questions whether it is ‘unreasonable to assum ... some 20 years from now there could be little or no forest cover left in Malaysia and Indonesia?’.

The answer is an emphatic ‘yes’.

While there is some deforestation caused by rogue farmers, the Stern review found that less than 20 percent of forest land cleared in Indonesia is associated with the industry, and it is only 30 percent in Malaysia.

The real cause of deforestation isn’t palm oil - it is poverty.

Indonesian and Malaysian farmers, supported by their governments, grow palm oil because it is provides a sustainable livelihood for poor rural farmers and it provides that livelihood because it is a crop in demand.

In the absence of palm oil, the problem of poor rural communities wanting a sustainable livelihood doesn’t disappear and farmers would reasonably switch to growing other crops.

The irony is that palm oil probably reduces the transfer of land from forest to agriculture because it has a yield potential of up to a factor of four of other comparative oil seeds.

So long as poor farmers are concerned about how they are going to feed their family, the environment is always going to come off second best. And history shows that wealthier societies can afford to invest and improve their environment.

This week, more than 1,800 delegates are attending the bi-annual palm oil industry conference, Pipoc 2009 in Malaysia to focus on the future of the industry.

Considering the theme of the conference is ‘Palm oil – balancing ecologics with economics” it is pretty clear the industry has got the message that the NGOs don’t intend to back down.

But attacking palm oil rather than poverty ignores the root cause of deforestation. And the consequences won’t be borne by the NGOs or boycotting consumers who’ll go without potato chips cooked with palm oil but the 40 per cent of smallholder palm oil growers who’ll go without their livelihoods.

The writer is director, IP and Free Trade Unit, Institute of Public Affairs , Melbourne.