Sea Side Scrap Book » Palm Oil: Don’t Turn Your Back On The Rain Forests

Palm Oil: Don’t Turn Your Back On The Rain Forests

Sustainability is the business buzz-word du jour for those companies that use palm oil. The biggest names in food, drink and toiletries are trumpeting their policies, be they plans to buy certified sustainable material in the next few years or an all-out boycott of the oil itself.

They’re responding to demand from consumers and campaigners who are keen to stop the damage caused by palm oil production in Malaysia and Indonesia, as rain forests are cleared to make way for plantations, emitting greenhouse gases and destroying the habitats of extinction-threatened orang-utans.

Great! The brand looks good, customers can buy their biscuits without fear of killing orang-utans, and another box is ticked on the CSR statement. The problem is this – if European companies boycott palm oil altogether, or buy only from sustainable plantations in countries such as Papua New Guinea, the issues in Indonesia and Malaysia will simply continue.

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Firstly, neither of those countries can afford to lose palm oil as an industry – more than a million people in Malaysia and Indonesia depend on palm oil for an income. And about 40 to 45% of plantations in those countries are smallholdings, not large corporations whose oil is shipped abroad.

The second point is that if Europe stops buying palm oil from Malaysia and Indonesia, that shortfall will go unnoticed among the huge amount consumed by India, China and other major markets.

The third point is that demanding sustainable palm oil from Malaysia and Indonesia gives producers an incentive to invest in responsible practices and the audits and certification to prove it. Shun them, and the cost and effort of working sustainably will no longer be worthwhile.

Most critically, palm oil itself is not the problem. No crop grows as fast or yields as much product as the oil palm, and most crops need 10 times more land. As the world’s population continues to grow beyond its resources, a stop to all palm oil production would have an even greater environmental impact as less productive and more expensive plantations replaced palm.

8. The point is this: the palm oil problem is not about you. It’s not about headlines, image or policy statements. It’s not about saving the orang-utan by boycotting chocolate with palm oil in it. It’s about tackling the problems and playing a part in making ethical, sustainable production the norm.

You won’t help the rain forests with a boycott – you’ll just wash your hands of the problem.

To find out more about sustainable palm oil, visit the GreenPalm page about sustainable palm oil and see how you can promote sustainable methods.