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Palm Oil - Claims, Facts and Questions

1. Claim: Palm Oil is a leading cause of deforestation

Fact: Most forest land is cleared by the poor

It is widely asserted that the Palm Oil industry is responsible for deforestation.   This is not true.

As the Kenyan Nobel Prize winner, Wangari Maathai, points out, the leading cause of deforestation is poverty.  Most forest land (60 – 70 percent) is cleared by the poor to secure fuel wood, or produce food or make space for housing.

2. Claim:  Rising demand for Palm Oil will cause rampant land clearing

Fact: Global production of Palm Oil has increased substantially by other means

The assertion is that the very strong demand in expanding developing country markets for Palm Oil, as well as demand in industrialized economies for bio fuel from Palm Oil, will require widescale clearance of forest land.

It is well known that output will be increased by improving productivity of existing plantations and by establishing plantations on land used for other purposes. 

In Malaysia, a major palm oil producer, one quarter of new plantings since 2000 is on land formerly used for other plantation crops.  Range land for cattle in Brazil is being converted to Palm Oil.

Only land designated for agricultural production may be used for Palm Oil in Malaysia.  More than 55 percent of Malaysia is now permanent forest estate.  In Indonesia, 25 percent of the country has been set aside for forest reserve.

3. Claim: Palm Oil endangers the Orang-utan

Fact: The loss of Orang-utan habitat is caused by human settlement

The major cause of loss of forest is human settlement, not palm oil plantations or commercial forestry.  This is the assessment of expert institutions such as the Food and Agriculture Organization and the Centre for International Forestry Research in Indonesia.

Fact: Active programs to protect Orang-utans have been established

Government agencies, conservation bodies and palm oil industries are supporting programs to protect Orang-utan. 

4. Claim: Palm Oil harms the poor and indigenous forest dwellers

Fact:  Palm Oil has had great success in reducing poverty

When Palm Oil was developed in Indonesia in the 70’s and 80’s, the World Bank rated it a leading means for reducing poverty.  Today 43 percent of Oil Palm in Indonesia is held by small holders.

Forty percent of Malaysian Palm Oil is held by small holders.  The industry was developed to provided livelihoods and raise living standards of previously impoverished landless workers.

By creating jobs and income, exports and taxes, Oil Palm is one of the most successful crops ever at raising living standards and alleviating poverty.

Fact: The problem for forest dwellers is adjustment to change

Forest dwellers are tiny, pre-industrial, nomadic or semi-nomadic communities which face special challenges as expanding human settlement encroaches on their traditional lifestyles.
 
Western NGOs regularly claim that challenge is the number one problem. For developing countries the leading issues is raising the living standards of the enormous numbers of the poor.

Economic development of plantations alongside reserved areas for local people gives them access to health and social services and opportunities to trade.

The impact on forest dwellers is a social problem, with no easy answer, as all industrialized societies with similar pre-industrial minorities have found.

5. Claim: Palm Oil is not sustainable

Fact: Palm Oil uses less land, energy and fertilizer, and produces more energy than other vegetable oil crops.

Palm Oil generates nearly 10 times the energy it consumes. Soybeans generate only 3 times the amount and Rapeseed only 2.5 times. [1]

The oil palm needs only 0.26 hectares of land to produce one tonne of oil. Soybean, sunflower and rapeseed respectively require 2.22, 2 and 1.52 hectares. [2]

Fact:   Systems verify the sustainability of Palm Oil

The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) has been established in co-operation with WWF and the Palm Oil industry.

There are national laws governing sustainability of palm oil plantations.

6. Claim: Palm Oil is a leading emitter of greenhouse gases

Fact: Palm Oil emits less greenhouse gas and is a more effective greenhouse sink that other oil seeds and most plantation crops.

Lifecycle analysis of carbon footprints of various oilseeds show greenhouse gas emissions from Palm Oil (835 kg carbon equivalent) are significantly lower than rapeseed (1,562 kg) and soybean (1,387kg). [3]

The palm oil tree mimics a tropical forest by its large canopy and perennial leaves.   The long life span of oil palm can enables it to sequester considerably more carbon than other biofuel crops.

7. Claim:  Because Oil Palm is grown in peat soil it releases vast amounts of greenhouse gas 

Fact: There is no basis for generalizing this claim about Palm Oil

Only some Palm Oil is planted in peat soils.  Burning of peat in South East Asia (which releases greenhouse gases) is attributed principally to Palm Oil.  The leading cause is land clearing by small holders and dry conditions occasioned by the El Nino weather pattern.

Technical knowledge of the carbon cycle from peat land is still in its infancy.  Most claims incorrectly assume recent emissions will be an annual occurrence and do not take into account the long term contribution to sequestration of peat.

Questions

Question: Why is Palm Oil being singled out?

Answer 1: Palm Oil production has increased dramatically over the last decade and challenges the established position in global markets of less competitive oilseeds.

In 1995 palm oil accounted for one fifth of the global edible oils market.  In 2008, palm oil’s share of the global market had risen to one third and it had overtaken oilseed as the largest producer.

When Palm Oil pushed into global oilseed markets, the US Oilseed industry ran a scurrilous campaign that Palm Oil encourage heart disease.  That claim has been shown as untrue and that Palm Oil is better for human health.

Palm Oil is cheaper than rapeseed, which is mostly produced in Europe.  The EU Renewable Energy Directive imposes trade restrictions on imports of Palm Oil for use as a renewable energy fuel.

Answer 2: European Greens oppose any measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions other than those that force a reduction in consumption of fossil fuel

The IPCC has pointed out that the cheapest and easiest way to reduce emissions is to expand sustainable forests.   A Palm Oil plantation behaves like a forest plantation.  It is a constantly renewable sink.

The rules for measuring the carbon cycle in forests and plantations do not recognize the full cycle of sequestration, treating the removal of a tree as a reduction of the sink, failing to  account for additional absorptive capacity from regrowth or stored carbon in timber products.

The FAO constantly points out that most countries do not have the knowledge to assess carbon baselines in forest and plantation areas.


[1] Lama, Tana, Lee and Rahma, Malaysian palm oil: Surviving the food versus fuel dispute for a sustainable future, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Volume 13, Issues 6-7, August-September 2009.

[2] MPOC, The Oil Palm Tree, http://www.mpoc.org.my/The_Oil_Palm_Tree.aspx

[3] 2008, Malaysia’s Oil Palm – Hallmark of Sustainable Development, Global Oils & Fats Business Magazine, Vol. 5, Issue No. 4