In a forum of palm oil producers recently, Joefly J. Bahroeny, head of the Indonesian Palm Oil Producers' Association, said that Western countries are using climate change as an excuse to constrain palm oil production in Asia because it competes with Western business interests.

Indonesia and Malaysia produce most of the world's palm oil -- a product used in cooking, chocolate, cosmetics and as a biofuel.

Environmental groups including Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth (FOE) and the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) have called on Indonesia to curb deforestation and palm oil expansion.

In the view of Deforestation Watch, the incongruity is stunning for the situation faced by the orang utans is relatively benign compared to the yearly decimation of the global shark population!