The demand for palm oil has increased sharply over the last few years. In 2011 54 million tons was produced with demand expected to double by 2030 and triple by 2050 making it the most widely produced oil in the world. It is a highly versatile product and is found in about 50% of all supermarket products, from biscuits, margarines and chocolates to shampoos, detergents and increasingly is being used as a biofuel.
Why have most of us not heard of it then? It is by no means a new product. Originally from Western Africa, the oil palm tree has been supplying Africa with oil for the last 5,000 years, however it is only in the last 40 years that the demand for palm oil has increased so significantly. This rapid increase in demand has been spurred on by a number of factors including the fact that it is not only produced in Africa anymore. The Oil Palm tree was successfully introduced into Java by the Dutch in 1848, and to Malaysia (then the British colony of Malaya) in 1910. Production remained relatively modest in these areas until around 40 years ago where various political factors and the gaining of independence by East Asian countries allowed the expansion and production of palm oil to increase rapidly. Malaysia and Indonesia now produce around 92% of all palm oil. The fact that it has the highest yield of any oil crop making it the cheapest vegetable oil to produce and refine has added to its market success.
Source: Rainforest Rescue
This sounds like a bit of a success story so far right? So why do I say it is such a problem? The issue is where and how it is being grown. As for the where, the palm oil tree can flourish wherever heat and rainfall are abundant, which basically means tropical regions. Since the tree’s introduction into Indonesia and Malaysia, large swathes of pristine rainforest, often in peat lands, have been and continue to be slashed and burned each year to make way for oil palm plantations. There is also the issue of land-grabbing as many areas that have been sold off are home to indigenous groups who are not consulted and can do little but watch the land on which they rely being taken away from them.
As for the how, the majority of plantations do not use sustainable farming measures or protect any of the native forest species. Indonesian and Malaysian rainforests are home to many endangered animals such as the Sumatran Tiger, orangutans, Sumatran Rhino, elephants and many other native species who are directly threatened by these plantations and it is not just a few plantations here and there, but hectares upon hectares of mono-crop areas. To give you an idea of size, Indonesia alone already has over 9 million hectares of plantations (roughly 21% of the country’s total land mass) with 26 million hectares projected for 2025.
Orangutans are particularly vulnerable because they are dependent on large contiguous forest areas. In search of food, they often get lost in the plantations, where they are regarded as pests. According to the Centre for Orangutan Protection (COP), at least 1,500 orangutans were clubbed to death by palm oil plantation workers in 2006 alone. According to the UN, there is a risk that no wild orangutans will remain outside of protected areas by 2020.
The rate of deforestation in this area is scary, along with oil palm plantations, there is also logging (legal and illegal), mining, agriculture and wood fibre plantations in competition for the land in a country with the 4th highest population in the world.
Source: WWF Germany
This rampant deforestation is a major factor leading to global warming, in fact almost 20% of released carbon worldwide comes from deforestation. According to a report published in 2007 by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), palm oil plantations are currently the leading cause of rainforest destruction in Malaysia and Indonesia. Today, rainforest area the equivalent of 300 soccer fields is being destroyed every hour. If the forest was on peatland – as is the case in much of Indonesia – the land is drained. Peatlands store vast quantities of carbon, and the conversion of a single hectare of Indonesian peatland rainforest releases up to 6,000 tons of CO2.
Recently aired on Showtime (American TV station) is a series directed by James Cameron called: Years of Living Dangerously. The first episode can be viewed online. Harrison Ford (yes, it is filled with big names) goes to visit Indonesia and as his plane is landing you see a thick smog out of the window, well it is not smog, but the smoke from slashing and burning the rainforest, a smoke cloud which can apparently be seen from space!
The map below shows the loss of forests in Indonesia since 2000 and is from a fantastic online resource which is available to anyone: Global Forest Watch.
The map below shows the palm oil (in pink), mining and logging concessions. Here you can start to see the correlation with forest loss and these concessions.
What is most distressing is that the whole of Malaysia is classified as a biodiversity hot spot (green area) however very little of it is a protected area (in Blue).
When you overlay the concessions / plantations with the protected areas an even more disturbing picture emerges where there is evident crossover of protected areas with concessions.
This is especially evident when you zoom into the concessions. The government land department has to be aware of this crossover.
Now I hope you are starting to see the problem. It seems that the forest is being attacked from all possible angles. So why is there such a high demand for it in the modern world? We don’t need palm oil and there are many alternatives to palm oil, but unfortunately none as cheap and efficient, which is why companies are reluctant to switch.
One other issue on the horizon has to do with palm oil’s increasing use as a biofuel. Many countries require the blending of “biofuels” by law. In 2010, the mandatory share in the EU was 6.25 percent. Currently it is only possible to add small quantities of palm oil to fossil diesel as there have been some problems with the blending, however this looks set to change in the near future with Neste, a state-owned Finnish company, finding a way to address the problems. They intend to flood the European market with cheap palm-oil diesel and have built three huge palm oil refineries in Singapore, Rotterdam and Helsinki in preparation. The EU has tried to ensure that biofuel is sustainable through introducing eight certification schemes which biofuel must meet and insisting that they must attain a CO2 reduction of at least 30 percent over fossil fuels. This sounds positive, but unfortunately both the certification schemes and the CO2 calculations are seriously flawed as they neglect to include emissions related to the management of plantations, such as those released in the production and distribution of the large amounts of fertilizer needed or the emissions produced in transporting and refining the oil. The United Nations and researchers from around the world are calling for an immediate stop to biofuels, which we can only hope is listened to.
So what is being done?
Fairly recently, some of the biggest palm oil producers in cooperation with WWF have formed the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). Members include Wilmar International, Cargill, Nestle and Unilever. Although this is a step in the right direction, there are real problems on both social and environmental grounds with the RSPO due to a number of factors.
Firstly, Indonesia and Malaysia are plagued by endemic corruption which completely undermines such efforts. According to Transparency International Indonesia scores 32/100 (0 being highly corrupt and 100 very clean) and Malaysia scores 50/100 in their corruption perceptions index. Anyone with money / connections has been able to purchase logging / palm oil concessions in areas where they should not be, more often than not displacing indigenous communities and encroaching into protected areas (as seen in the previous map). Some companies have bribed local officials or tribal leaders to evict people from their own land leading to conflicts (sometimes armed) where government troops have being called in to squash resistance.
Secondly, the RSPO system is still in its infancy and most of the guidelines are loosely worded and thus open to translation. For example, within the sections ‘Environmental responsibility and conservation of natural resources and biodiversity’ and ‘Responsible development of new plantings’ there is nothing stating that a company has to, for example, create wildlife corridors every 20 hectares through plantations or move towards organic farming methods or create buffer zones between plantations and local communities or replant the areas of plantations which evidently encroach into protected areas with rainforest species. The criteria outline instead that plantations should ‘manage their effluent responsibly, reduce pollution, use less water, optimise the use of fossil fuels and avoid using fire to prepare land’. Although heading in the right direction, the openness to interpretation of these principles leaves much to be desired. Also all of the RSPO principles and criteria are interpreted within each country requiring members to adhere to existing national laws / best practice guidelines. Why have these been ignored in the past if companies have been buying land off of the government? I have to wonder if they exist.
Thirdly, there is the simple fact that a palm oil plantation is a monoculture which cannot support the biodiversity which it has replaced, no matter what sustainable production steps are taken. Only halting further deforestation and replanting rainforest species could even hope to address this issue and here in lies a major loophole with RSPO certification. It does not rule out the clearing of rainforest, but only states that primary and “high conservation value” forests are considered off-limits. Now, considering that there is no internationally recognized definition of “high conservation value” areas, a country can more or less define the term as it sees fit. Couple this with the corruption in these areas and one can only assume that the definition of land can be changed for the right price.
Fourth, the social aspects of the RSPO are general principles and human rights. Due to their general nature they cannot be enforced and land grabbing is rife. Added to this is the problem that in Indonesia land titles lack government oversight and land rights are not clearly defined thus traditional customary land (which has been inhabited by native forest peoples for generations, but are not formally demarcated) are not always recognized. It is therefore rather easy for companies to displace, threaten and arrest farmers and indigenous populations for being on ‘company land’. If a community wished to go straight to the RSPO to make a complaint, grievances raised can take years to be resolved, ultimately giving the companies full access to do as they wish in the meantime.
Fifthly, compliance with RSPO criteria are not reviewed adequately and violations are rarely punished. Research by Rainforest Rescue outlines how Wilmar, the world’s leading palm oil company, is involved in 100 land conflicts and human rights violations in Indonesia alone. Sinar Mas, another major RSPO player, has cleared tropical rainforest all over the Indonesia for its palm oil plantations, and is still expanding rapidly. There have been some incidents with RSPO certified plantations such as the Daabon group in Colombia being responsible for serious accidents and spills, excessive use of water, pollution, deforestation and the eviction of small farmers from their land. Sime Darby, another RSPO member recently gained concessions in Indonesia and Liberia to develop plantations on hundreds of thousands of hectares of existing forest land. Andrew Ng of Malaysia Nature Society has outlined that Sime Darby have “a substantial number of on-going cases of social conflict in both Sarawak and Kalimantan. Though some of them were ‘inherited’ when they took over two other companies to become the largest company, they have not demonstrated leadership on addressing conflicts as would be expected from the self-claimed ‘sustainability leader’. In fact, their track-record in plantations and social conflicts makes the tag-line ironic humor.”
Lastly, the people in the adjacent settlements of the plantations frequently lose their livelihoods not only through losing the forest (food and income source) and the water reservoir on which they rely, but also their protection against landslides and floods leaving many villages unprotected.
Merely weighing the commercial value of palm oil and giving companies the option to work towards some loosely defined criteria is missing the point. Any allegedly sustainable land use strategy should not favour the destruction of large swaths of rainforest. It is little wonder that other NGO’s such as Greenpeace International consider RSPO to be “little more than “greenwash”.
Another major ‘effort’ which has been on the news relates to some of the world’s largest palm oil companies recently making zero deforestation commitments that aim to “eliminate rainforest and peatlands conversion from their supply chains, while improving labour conditions and engaging local communities in new plantation development”. This is all well and good, but a little too late really. What about the millions of hectares of already converted forest? There have been no plans for restitution of traditional lands to communities or the creation wildlife corridors or plans to reforest areas of already converted land. Now I know that seems a bit negative of me. I know stopping the chainsaws is the first step, but it seems that companies expect a pat on the back for stating that they will halt deforestation whilst they should not have cutting and burning so much forest in the first place. On the other side of the coin you have other palm oil interests who have been digging in, resisting pressure to improve the social and environmental impact of the industry. For example, officials in the Malaysian state of Sarawak have signalled that they plan to continue with the plan to convert a million hectares of native customary rights land — much of which is forested peatland – into palm oil plantations. Others have stepped up the rhetoric, calling zero deforestation pacts a Western effort to discriminate against the palm oil industry. Again it sees the rich, who have the means to bribe getting richer and the poor getting poorer with no support from the government which is supposed to be working for the people.
Stuck in all of this controversy you have the small farmers who provide a small portion of the palm oil produced in Malaysia and Indonesia and rely on the oil as their only means of income. Whilst I would not want to destroy someone’s livelihood, due to the traceability of palm oil being a bit of a maze, it is hard to see exactly where the palm oil in your product comes from. It is often the larger companies such as Wilmar and Sime Darby who have planted millions of hectares and are largely to blame for the rate of deforestation, but it is the smaller guys (yet again) who could lose out. Another problem with regards to traceability is that some of these ‘big boys’ have plantations not only in Malaysia, but also in Africa, so how do you know where you are buying from? I do hope that the traceability of palm oil will evolve as chocolate and coffee has so that you can buy from a single source / farm with confidence in the future.
So what can we do?
I already outlined how many products palm oil is found in, which can make it hard to avoid, but it is worth the effort. Even if all the reasons above do not fully convince you, there is the health factor to consider. Rainforest Rescue outline this perfectly “Almost half of palm oil consists of saturated fats, which cause high cholesterol and heart disease, and are generally regarded as a cause of obesity. Palm kernel oil, which is often used for cocoa icings, ice cream and caramel, contains up to 80 percent saturated fat. Palm oil also contains fatty acid esters (3-MCPD and glycidol fatty acid esters) that are considered carcinogenic. Concentrations of such hazardous substances are especially high in refined palm oil, an ingredient in infant formula. Popular chocolate hazelnut and chocolate spreads also tend to contain a lot of palm oil. Children are especially vulnerable in this regard because of their low body weight in relation to the quantity of harmful substances they consume. The German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) has issued a warning against consuming the substances contained in palm oil.”
Besides for it being in so many products it is not always easy to identify from the list of ingredients on products. This is because in many countries, there is no law on the mandatory labelling of palm oil. Consequently, companies will usually hide palm oil under the name of ‘vegetable oil’, or over 170 other names! I have included a list of 30 of the most common names it can be found under below. Also note, just because a product says it is “Organic” or “Cruelty-Free” does not mean it doesn’t contain palm oil. In fact, most natural/organic products do contain palm oil – because palm oil is a very much a natural ingredient.
Over my next few posts I will be listing the what, where and how of going palm oil free in various products, but for now, here are a few simple guidelines:
- Almost all Asian products or products made in Asia that have ‘vegetable oil’ written on the label. This almost definitely palm oil. This includes all ‘quick noodles’.
- Most pre-packaged snack foods made by well known, large corporate-giants (Nestle, Unilever etc) contain palm oil.
- If a product’s saturated fat content is over 40% of its total fat content, it will almost always have palm oil in it.
- Ingredients with the word ‘palm’ in them are palm oil or are derived from the oil palm fruit.
- Look for products that contain alternative vegetable oils, such as 100% sunflower oil, corn oil or canola oil. However, please note that Soybean oil is often associated with the destruction of rainforests in Brazil.
- If you are not sure whether a product contains palm oil, either type the product name into google along with ‘palm oil’ and see the search results, or call the company and ask if they use palm oil.
- Lastly, please remember that even if a company is using RSPO palm oil, this does not mean it is grown organically and it is worth you checking.
30 Names palm oil can be labelled under
Foods, Body Products, Cosmetics & Cleaning Agents:
-Vegetable Oil (if the product contains saturated fats, it’s most likely palm oil)
-Vegetable Fat
-Sodium Laureth Sulfate (in almost everything that foams) ^ – See my other post on this substance.
-Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS) ^
-Sodium Dodecyl Sulphate (SDS or NaDS) ^
-Palm Kernel#
-Palm Oil Kernel #
-Palm Fruit Oil #
-Palmate #
-Palmitate #
-Palmolein #
-Glyceryl Stearate #
– Ingredient lists containing “stearate, stearyl”
-Stearic Acid #
-Elaeis Guineensis #
-Palmitic Acid #
-Palm Stearine #
-Palmitoyl oxostearamide #
-Palmitoyl tetrapeptide-3 #
-Steareth -2 *
-Steareth -20 *
-Sodium Kernelate #
-Sodium Palm Kernelate #
-Sodium Lauryl Lactylate/Sulphate *
-Sodium Lauryl Sulfoacetate ^
-Hyrated Palm Glycerides #
-Sodium Isostearoyl Lactylaye ^
-Cetyl Palmitate #
-Octyl Palmitate #
– Ingredient lists containing the words “cetyl, cetearyl”
-Cetyl Alcohol ^
-Palmityl Alchohol #
– Hydrated palm ¬gylcerides hexadecanoic
– Calcium stearoyl lactylate steareth -2, steareth -20 emulsifier 422, 430-36, 465-67, 470-8, 481-483
# These ingredients are definitely palm oil or derived from palm oil.
* These ingredients are often derived from palm oil, but could be derived from other vegetable oils.
^ These ingredients are either derived from palm oil or coconut oil.
Notes:
The maps I used in this blog were obtained from Global Forest Watch a website which is an interactive map covering the entire globe and shows forest loss / gain over the years. You can filter out what you wish to see such as palm oil concessions, recent forest fires and marked concessions. What you do have to take into account is that the area shown as forest gain, absurdly includes areas which have been planted for commercial logging and established palm oil plantations as these are classified as ‘forest areas’, so if you want to see what actual forest gain there has been you need to overlay the forest gain map with the ‘intact forest landscapes map. Unfortunately most of the time, there areas are far away from one another.
Resources:
http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/buyersguides/
http://betterpalmoildebate.org/
http://www.rainforest-rescue.org/
http://www.orangutan.org.au/palm-oil
http://www.saynotopalmoil.com/Whats_the_issue.php
Top Image :”Oilpalm malaysia” by Craig – Own work. Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons – http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Oilpalm_malaysia.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Oilpalm_malaysia.jpg
Plum stoned 
