7/27/2019 Tha Case against Palm Oil
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Palm oil touches our lives every time we take a trip to the
supermarket. Palm oil and its derivatives are used in a ubiquitous
array o
packaged oods, including ice cream, cookies, crackers, chocolate
products, cereals, breakast bars, cake mixes, doughnuts,
potatochips, instant noodles, rozen sweets and meals, baby ormula,
margarine, and dry and canned soups.
In the U.S. alone, palm oil imports have jumped 485% in the last
decade. The dramatic and growing demand or this crop in recent
decades has pushed sprawling palm oil plantations deep into some
o the worlds most valuable rainorests and palm oil production
is
now one o the leading causes o rainorest destruction around the
globe.
Ranfores Desruon
Nearly 90% percent o palm oil is grown in the tropical countries
o Indonesia and Malaysia, where palm oil plantations under
active
cultivation cover 16 million acres, an area similar in size to
West Virginia.
The Indonesian government has announced plans to convert
approximately 44 million more acres o rainorests, an area the
size
o Missouri, into palm oil plantations by 2020. The UNs
Environment Program (UNEP) indicates, 98% o Indonesias orest may
be
destroyed by 2022, the lowland orest much sooner.
Rainorest destruction or palm oil expansion is spreading quickly
to other valuable rainorest regions such as in Central Arica.
Endanered spees and e oss of odversy
Indonesias rainorests are one o earths most biologically and
culturally rich landscapes. Incredibly, with just 1 percent o the
Earths
land area, Indonesias rainorests contain 10% o the worlds known
plants, 12% o mammals and 17% o all known bird species.
As recently as the 1960s, about 80% o Indonesia was orested.
Sadly, Indonesia now has one o the highest deorestation rates in
the
world, with just under hal o the countrys original orest cover
remaining. Conservative studies suggest more than 2.4 million acres
o
Indonesian rainorest is cleared and lost each year.
The rainorests o Borneo and Sumatra are the last stand or one o
humankinds closest relatives, the orangutan. Orangutans ace an
extreme risk o extinction within our lietime. Between 2004-08,
the Sumatran orangutan population ell by 14% to 6,600, largely due
to
loss o habitat or palm oil expansion. The Critically Endangered
Sumatran tiger and Sumatran rhinoceros, both with populations o
only
hundreds let in the wild, are also urgently threatened by palm
oil expansion.
A F A ct S h E E t
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Fores ounes and uan rs
Corporate land grabbing o Indigenous and community orests or
palm oil plantations is responsible or serious human rights
abuses
and persistent conicts between companies and rural
communities.
In Indonesia there are over 500 dierent language groups and
between 60 and 110 million Indigenous peoples, many o whom
depend
on standing natural orests or their livelihoods.
The Indonesian palm oil monitoring group SawitWatch has
identifed 663 ongoing land disputes between palm oil companies and
rural
communities. In too many cases, private armies and
paramilitaries have been deployed and people have been killed.
Many industrial palm oil plantations also rely on the use o
orced and child labor. In Malaysia and Indonesia, child labor has
been
documented and allegations o modern-day slavery on plantations
across Malaysia are common.
Peaands and cae cane
Peatlands are carbon-rich wet ecosystems that have sequestered
billions o tons o carbon through thousands o years o
accumulating
lea litter and organic material. Indonesia has the worlds
highest concentration o tropical peatlands, but the scale o their
destruction
is so large that it is having globally signifcant impacts on the
climate, similar in scale to the worlds biggest coal and tar sands
projects
Indonesia is the worlds third largest emitter o greenhouse gases
ater the U.S. and China, with 85% o its emissions profle coming
rom
rainorest and peatland destruction. Deorestation in Indonesia is
responsible or some 5% o global greenhouse gas emissions, which
is
more than the combined emissions rom all the millions o cars,
trucks, trains, and buses in the U.S. each year combined.
te Souon: Response Pa O
Consumers are oten misled by RSPO certifed or Green Palm labels.
These labels rom the Roundtable o Sustainable Palm Oil
(RSPO) still allows certifed sustainable palm oil producers to
destroy rainorests and carbon-rich peatlands. Companies that
produce
trade and use palm oil must go beyond these inadequate RSPO
standards to be truly responsible.
Responsible palm oil is produced without contributing to
rainorest or peatland destruction, species extinction, greenhouse
gas
emissions or human rights abuses. Food manuacturing companies
need transparent and traceable supply chains rom the plantation
where the palm oil was sourced to the fnal product on your
grocery store shel.
f o r m o r e i n f o r m a t i o n v i s i t t h E P R O b l E
m w i t h P A l m O i l . O R g
425 Bush Street, Suite 300 | San Francisco, CA 94108
RAN.org
photo: D a v i D G i L B e r t / r a n
