Indonesia's giant palm oil industry, long a target of global environmental groups, is shoring up its defenses closer to home as it tries to counter growing anti-palm oil sentiment among a more environmentally conscious generation of young Indonesians.
Indonesia, the world's top palm oil producer, is training farmers and teachers while running social media campaigns to highlight the "positive aspects" of the $50 billion industry.
"We must tell the world about the benefits of palm oil," Achmad Maulizal, the corporate division head of BPDP, a government body in charge of collecting export taxes, told a media training workshop for farmers in Kalimantan via Zoom.