Research Full Swing

At the Sandakan Airport

IJMP's Quality, Training & Research Centre at Sijas. Sijas is one of IJM's three oil palm plantations in Sandakan.

I hopped into Sandakan last week to meet up with more stakeholders for my research. This time was to meet up with a planter. IJM Plantations Berhad (IJMP) with the leadership of Joseph Tek, an ex-Cambridge graduate, gave me the best Sandakan hospitability (ever) throughout my 3-day stay there. IJMP is known as the "boutique" planter in Malaysia with a total area of 30,000 hectares in oil palm. The bigger boys would have 100,000 to 300,000 hectares. So, 30,000 is just a fraction of that. However, IJMP is regarded as the epitome to sustainable palm oil. Many planters of that size would have dropped the idea of sustainable practices due to the puny scale of economies.

The gravel road leading to Sijas

River crossing at the off-roads

One of the staff residence in Sijas. I stayed in one of the units. It's quite a good life there and how can I agree with some NGOs claiming that the workers in the oil palm estates are living in bad conditions. They even have satellite tv!

I was put up a night in this bungalow at the Desa Talisai plantation. This house is smacked in the middle of the plantation. It belongs to the MD of IJMP.

The sports complex developed for the workers in Desa Talisai. I was really impressed with the way IJMP invested in its staff welfare and well being. There is employment, social cohesion and interaction. I read this as social sustainability??

The trip was packed back-to-back. I didn't even get to see the town even though it was located about 6km from IJMP's HQ. I was taken to the plantation as soon as I arrived into Sandakan. Anyone who have read about Sandakan would know that Sandakan is THE place to eat fresh seafood at a fraction of the price in West Malaysia. However, I didn't even get to enjoy this. But it's okay; it just gives me a reason to come back next time!

And by the way, Sandakan is located in Sabah, Malaysia, about 2300km away from Kuala Lumpur; that's a good 2hrs 45mins flight from home!

Rainforest and oil palm co-existing with each other. NGOs have always attributed rainforest destruction to oil palm cultivation or land expansion for oil palm, but getting to the ground to see the real thing was an eye-opening experience. I am just surprised by how some of these claims were twisted to misinform the public and solicit support from them to fight their cause! Besides, such practice is not uniquely attributable to IJMP only but industry wide.

Let's talk about biodiversity then...and what about that again??

Effluent discharge or use of fertilisers causes pollution to tributary and rivers? Is it true that you guys dump poisons into the river?? Marine biodiversity badly affected? You can never be sure unless you get your hands dirty to find out. Since I didn't bring the necessary equipment to test for BOD, COD, acidity etc, so I tested a holding pond and tried fishing. Adrian (background) and I caught 12 fishes within an hour!
Drip irrigation for seedlings as compared to the older sprinkler system to minimise water loss .

Transportation of fresh fruit bunches to the production mill.

The finished product; cooking oil or biodiesel??? Competition between food and fuel, the sustainability question that I'd be looking at...