Portrait. of Reta a/p Lajaj chairman of the indigenous Mah Meri village of Sungai Judah on Carey Island wearing traditional clothing (her choice).
"No one informed me about the EUDR (European Union Deforestation Regulations)" but her smallholder 21 acres (8.5 hectare) oil palm plantation. Her farm has been licensed by the MPOB (Malayasian Palm Oil Board) since the 1990's, certified by MSPO (Malaysia Sustainanable Palm Oil) and RSPO (Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil since 2019.
Before growing oil palm, her land was used to grow coconut, coffee, a little cacao, rambutan and mangosteen. Carey Island was converted decades ago to agriculture with 70% if the island occupied by the oil palm giant Sime Darby, which was founded here in 1910, as a rubber plantation, later converted to more profitable oil palm. Sime Darby owns 90% of the land on the island. The land, Reta says, being close to the Straits of Malacca, used to be scrubland and mangroves.
Selangor, Malaysia//WHITLOWDELANOJAMES_SIPA.59769/Credit:James Whitlow Delano/SIPA/2411131739