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An accurate representation of deforestation and killing of ecosystem.

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What’s So Wrong About the Palm Oil Industry? 

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What’s So Wrong About the Palm Oil Industry? 

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* Since almost everything contains palm oil, it is mass produced on huge scales
* Even though palm oil requires less land to produce than other crops, large amounts of forest are being cut down and cleared out
* These actions cause pollution (dirt in the air and on land), it increases global warning and climate change, and lessens bio diversity
* Bio diversity is variety of animals and species on Earth; palm oil plantations are causing species like the Orangutan and Sumatran elephants
* When these plantations are abandoned it takes thousands of years to regrow to its original state

^ https://news.mongabay.com/2020/06/how-the-legacy-of-colonialism-built-a-palm-oil-empire/
^ https://www.worldwildlife.org/industries/palm-oil

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Malaysia's transition to sustainable Palm Oil - Lokkit Sanjay Babu Narayanan

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Malaysia's transition to sustainable Palm Oil - Lokkit Sanjay Babu Narayanan

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- Malaysia Produces 26% of the world's Palm Oil and recently established that all Malaysian producers of Palm oil need to be sustainable by 2025
- The Malaysian State of Sabah on Borneo will be the first to go fully sustainable followed by the other states.
- Sabah produced over 5 million tons of the substance last year, or over 6% of the global supply of Palm Oil.
- Although over 65% of Sabah is still covered in forests, Malaysia has nearly lost over 1/5th of its forest area in 20 years.
- Global organizations such as General Mills, Ferrero and Nestle have begun tracking the source of their Palm Oil, to ensure that it is sustainable.
- Over 4.5 million Malaysian Workers are directly involved in the Palm Oil Industry.
- Land cleared for Palm Oil plantations are done so with the Slash-and-burn practices which create thick hazes over Borneo and are the most unhealthy way of clearing forests.
- Palm Oil has been harvested in Malaysia since the mid 1800s.

Link -
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/02/borneo-islands-sabah-state-green-palm-oil-deforestation-sustainability/

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Sabah state in Malaysia is working to adapt its palm oil industry, ensuring all growers are sustainable producers by 2025.

Whilst the palm oil industry has brought jobs to nearly 4.5 million people in Indonesia and Malaysia, it has also caused mass deforestation.

The Sabah government hopes that these revolutionary efforts will help protect forests, end labour abuses and improve agriculture practices.

Malaysia's Sabah state, on Borneo island, is looking to revolutionise its palm oil industry with a decade-long initiative that will ensure all growers adopt ethical standards and are certified as sustainable producers by 2025.

The innovative project, launched in 2015, brings together the state's authorities, plantation owners, palm oil traders and buyers, green groups and local communities.

Led by the Sabah government, the scheme will help all oil palm growers - big and small - first earn national-level green certification as a stepping stone to meeting the global standard managed by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).

It is hoped the state's effort will help protect and restore forests, improve agriculture practices and oil palm yields, resolve land disputes, end labour abuses and eventually give producers access to international premium-paying buyers.

The "jurisdictional" approach being pursued across Sabah is "globally recognised as a pioneering model" to tackle deforestation and improve labour rights in the supply chain, said Robecca Jumin, head of conservation in Sabah for green group WWF-Malaysia, which is backing the initiative.

While large companies have the resources to earn RSPO certification, small and medium-sized growers find it harder to comply and need a support system like Sabah's, she added.

Here's why the state's scheme matters, both to communities and global efforts to protect ecosystems and the climate:

What is palm oil and what are its uses?

The oil palm tree originates in West Africa where it grows in the wild to heights of more than 60 feet (18.3 metres).

Oil palm was introduced to Malaysia by the British and to Indonesia by the Dutch in the mid-1800s, and was first planted as an ornamental tree.

The palms start bearing fruit about 30 months after planting, and are productive for the next 20 to 30 years. They produce four to 10 times more oil than other vegetable oil crops per unit of cultivated land.

Palm oil is used in a wide range of food and household products, from biscuits, ice-cream and chocolate spread to soaps and cosmetics, as well as in biofuels.

Malaysia and Indonesia account for about 90% of global palm oil output, while India, China, Indonesia and Europe are the main consumers.

Sabah produced about 5 million tonnes of palm oil in 2020, or 6% of the global total, according to WWF.

How have palm plantations impacted Southeast Asia's forests?

Across Indonesia and Malaysia, about 4.5 million people earn their living from palm oil production. The business has helped lift millions out of poverty, industry officials say.

But in many parts of the two Southeast Asian nations, the clearance of land to grow oil palm has caused deforestation, despite pledges by big firms to end it.

Indonesia, which introduced a moratorium on primary forest clearing in 2011, was among the top four countries for rainforest loss in 2020, according to Global Forest Watch, a satellite monitoring service. Malaysia was ranked ninth.

Malaysia, which has lost nearly a fifth of its old-growth forest since 2001, set a five-year cap on its total palm oil plantation area in 2019 and, before the COVID-19 pandemic, had plans to increase fines and jail terms for illegal logging.

About 65% of Sabah state is still covered by lush forests home to often-endangered wildlife including wild boar, orangutans, proboscis monkeys and pygmy elephants.

Just over half of its forests are designated as reserves or protected by law, officials say.

Why is forest protection so important globally?

Destroying rainforest has major implications for international goals to curb climate change as trees absorb about a third of the planet-warming emissions produced worldwide, but release carbon back into the air when they rot or are burned.

Forests also help clean up air and water, support human health, offer flood protection and mitigate heat in cities.

Slash-and-burn practices linked to palm oil production are often blamed for the annual Indonesian forest fires whose smoke creates a thick haze over large parts of Southeast Asia.

Malaysia and Indonesia are among the more than 100 nations that pledged to halt deforestation by 2030 at November's COP26 climate summit, after previous efforts failed to make headway.

Conservationists say Sabah's green standards drive could be replicated elsewhere and help countries achieve their pledges to cut climate-heating emissions.

What's the World Economic Forum doing about deforestation?

What is the palm oil industry doing to stop deforestation?

Over the last decade, pressure from consumers and campaigners has pushed big corporations that grow, trade and buy palm oil to tackle labour abuses on plantations and commit to ending deforestation.

Some major buyers - including Italian confectioner Ferrero and Cheerios cereal-maker General Mills - have pledged only to procure supplies certified as sustainable.

Both producers and buyers have also teamed up with green groups to monitor and rid supply chains of deforestation, including by investing in tracking technologies.

Some other palm oil buyers have switched to using alternative vegetable oils.

But all those efforts have yet to bear much fruit.

High-profile companies in the Consumer Goods Forum struggled to meet a 2020 goal set a decade earlier to buy only sustainably produced commodities, including palm oil, soy and beef.

Forum members, including Carrefour, Walmart, General Mills, Mars, Nestle, Unilever and PepsiCo, in 2020 launched a "Forest Positive Coalition of Action" in a new bid to stop commodity supply chains fuelling forest loss and to curb climate change.

The RSPO, an industry body of consumers, green groups and growers that promotes the use of certified sustainable palm-oil products, tightened its rules in 2018, imposing a ban on clearing forests and converting peatland for plantations.

Singapore, meanwhile, has set its sights on becoming the first country to use only sustainable palm oil by 2023 under a green push to tackle forest fires and air pollution.

This article is published in collaboration with Reuters

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

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This Borneo state is bringing about a green palm oil revolution, here's how

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Sabah state in Malaysia is working to adapt its palm oil industry, ensuring all growers are sustainable producers by 2025. Whilst the palm oil industry has brought jobs to nearly 4.5 million people in Indonesia and Malaysia, it has also caused mass deforestation.

# data[].attributes.headline
Penelope Chen and Krish Anand - Indonesian Palm Oil Limitations

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Penelope Chen and Krish Anand - Indonesian Palm Oil Limitations

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The Indonesian government is currently drafting a plan to have the exportation as such oils as palm oil to be limited

These limitations require exporters to receive shipment approval for the exportation of palm oils and products for 6 months

The prices of palm oil in Malaysia increased by 3.2% in response to the Indonesian policies, etc.

Thus far, there a minimum requirement for the domestic sale of palm oil has not yet been implemented

A handful of legislators have asked for the Domestic Market Obligation to intervene

The DMO is striving to ensure that domestic supply is available to its power plants

Some feel that Indonesian citizens should have access to cooking oils of lower prices

Export disruptions in the permits are not expected as the limitations are being implemented only to supposedly benefit people

This would ensure organization, availability, and supply security

Palm oil companies must share their exportation/distribution plans and attach a sales contract (proof)

The government set a single price for the purchase of oils like palm oil (14,000 rupiah per liter)

The government plans to maintain this set price by distributing 7.6 trillion rupiah (subsidies) for 250 million liters of palm oil

Link: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/business/indonesia-government-drafting-plan-limit-palm-oil-exports-gapki-2444911

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-Palm oil originates from west Africa

-The palm tree grows more than 60 ft tall in the wild.

-Malaysia got palm oil when the British brought it and the dutch had brought it to Indonesia in the mid 1800

-Palms bear fruit 30 months after planting and keep producing for 20-30 more years.

-Malaysia and Indonesia make 90% of global palm oil.

-4.5 million people in Indonesia and Malaysia are being employed by Palm oil production

-making land for palm trees has cause deforestation in south East Asian countries.

-Malaysia has lost. A fifth of its old growth forest since 2001.

The destroyed trees causes carbon which we already have too much have.

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/02/borneo-islands-sabah-state-green-palm-oil-deforestation-sustainability/

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Sabah state in Malaysia is working to adapt its palm oil industry, ensuring all growers are sustainable producers by 2025.

Whilst the palm oil industry has brought jobs to nearly 4.5 million people in Indonesia and Malaysia, it has also caused mass deforestation.

The Sabah government hopes that these revolutionary efforts will help protect forests, end labour abuses and improve agriculture practices.

Malaysia's Sabah state, on Borneo island, is looking to revolutionise its palm oil industry with a decade-long initiative that will ensure all growers adopt ethical standards and are certified as sustainable producers by 2025.

The innovative project, launched in 2015, brings together the state's authorities, plantation owners, palm oil traders and buyers, green groups and local communities.

Led by the Sabah government, the scheme will help all oil palm growers - big and small - first earn national-level green certification as a stepping stone to meeting the global standard managed by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).

It is hoped the state's effort will help protect and restore forests, improve agriculture practices and oil palm yields, resolve land disputes, end labour abuses and eventually give producers access to international premium-paying buyers.

The "jurisdictional" approach being pursued across Sabah is "globally recognised as a pioneering model" to tackle deforestation and improve labour rights in the supply chain, said Robecca Jumin, head of conservation in Sabah for green group WWF-Malaysia, which is backing the initiative.

While large companies have the resources to earn RSPO certification, small and medium-sized growers find it harder to comply and need a support system like Sabah's, she added.

Here's why the state's scheme matters, both to communities and global efforts to protect ecosystems and the climate:

What is palm oil and what are its uses?

The oil palm tree originates in West Africa where it grows in the wild to heights of more than 60 feet (18.3 metres).

Oil palm was introduced to Malaysia by the British and to Indonesia by the Dutch in the mid-1800s, and was first planted as an ornamental tree.

The palms start bearing fruit about 30 months after planting, and are productive for the next 20 to 30 years. They produce four to 10 times more oil than other vegetable oil crops per unit of cultivated land.

Palm oil is used in a wide range of food and household products, from biscuits, ice-cream and chocolate spread to soaps and cosmetics, as well as in biofuels.

Malaysia and Indonesia account for about 90% of global palm oil output, while India, China, Indonesia and Europe are the main consumers.

Sabah produced about 5 million tonnes of palm oil in 2020, or 6% of the global total, according to WWF.

How have palm plantations impacted Southeast Asia's forests?

Across Indonesia and Malaysia, about 4.5 million people earn their living from palm oil production. The business has helped lift millions out of poverty, industry officials say.

But in many parts of the two Southeast Asian nations, the clearance of land to grow oil palm has caused deforestation, despite pledges by big firms to end it.

Indonesia, which introduced a moratorium on primary forest clearing in 2011, was among the top four countries for rainforest loss in 2020, according to Global Forest Watch, a satellite monitoring service. Malaysia was ranked ninth.

Malaysia, which has lost nearly a fifth of its old-growth forest since 2001, set a five-year cap on its total palm oil plantation area in 2019 and, before the COVID-19 pandemic, had plans to increase fines and jail terms for illegal logging.

About 65% of Sabah state is still covered by lush forests home to often-endangered wildlife including wild boar, orangutans, proboscis monkeys and pygmy elephants.

Just over half of its forests are designated as reserves or protected by law, officials say.

Why is forest protection so important globally?

Destroying rainforest has major implications for international goals to curb climate change as trees absorb about a third of the planet-warming emissions produced worldwide, but release carbon back into the air when they rot or are burned.

Forests also help clean up air and water, support human health, offer flood protection and mitigate heat in cities.

Slash-and-burn practices linked to palm oil production are often blamed for the annual Indonesian forest fires whose smoke creates a thick haze over large parts of Southeast Asia.

Malaysia and Indonesia are among the more than 100 nations that pledged to halt deforestation by 2030 at November's COP26 climate summit, after previous efforts failed to make headway.

Conservationists say Sabah's green standards drive could be replicated elsewhere and help countries achieve their pledges to cut climate-heating emissions.

What's the World Economic Forum doing about deforestation?

What is the palm oil industry doing to stop deforestation?

Over the last decade, pressure from consumers and campaigners has pushed big corporations that grow, trade and buy palm oil to tackle labour abuses on plantations and commit to ending deforestation.

Some major buyers - including Italian confectioner Ferrero and Cheerios cereal-maker General Mills - have pledged only to procure supplies certified as sustainable.

Both producers and buyers have also teamed up with green groups to monitor and rid supply chains of deforestation, including by investing in tracking technologies.

Some other palm oil buyers have switched to using alternative vegetable oils.

But all those efforts have yet to bear much fruit.

High-profile companies in the Consumer Goods Forum struggled to meet a 2020 goal set a decade earlier to buy only sustainably produced commodities, including palm oil, soy and beef.

Forum members, including Carrefour, Walmart, General Mills, Mars, Nestle, Unilever and PepsiCo, in 2020 launched a "Forest Positive Coalition of Action" in a new bid to stop commodity supply chains fuelling forest loss and to curb climate change.

The RSPO, an industry body of consumers, green groups and growers that promotes the use of certified sustainable palm-oil products, tightened its rules in 2018, imposing a ban on clearing forests and converting peatland for plantations.

Singapore, meanwhile, has set its sights on becoming the first country to use only sustainable palm oil by 2023 under a green push to tackle forest fires and air pollution.

This article is published in collaboration with Reuters

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

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This Borneo state is bringing about a green palm oil revolution, here's how

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Sabah state in Malaysia is working to adapt its palm oil industry, ensuring all growers are sustainable producers by 2025. Whilst the palm oil industry has brought jobs to nearly 4.5 million people in Indonesia and Malaysia, it has also caused mass deforestation.

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Palm Oil: Conflicts with the Environment

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Palm Oil: Conflicts with the Environment

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https://www.fix.com/blog/how-palm-oil-affects-the-environment/

Although palm oil itself isn’t harmful, the process of extraction is.

The $40 billion palm industry is known for causing deforestation. When producers want to expand their business, they resort to eliminating the wilderness by burning forests. This releases excessive amounts of greenhouse gas.

This also displaces indigenous people and animals. When plantations grow, plants that aren’t palm get removed. The animals residing in those plants are forced to relocate.

Orangutans amongs with other animals are at risk of extinction because of this industry.

Leads to loss of biodiversity

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The Effects on Palm oil on the Environment- Joash Abraham

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The Effects on Palm oil on the Environment- Joash Abraham

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The hunt for palm oil has had a significant impact on the world and its environment.

Air Pollution:

In order to harvest the oil, vegetation and natural forests have to be cleared and burned

As we know, the burning of these environments release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, thus contributing to climate change and air pollution

Fires such as these in wetland areas are difficult to put out

Soil and Water pollution:

Palm oil mills usually generate around 2.5 metric tons of effluent for each ton of palm oil that is produced

The release of the effluent may lead to the pollution of water

This can alter downstream biodiversity and people

Even though palm oil plantations aren’t users of fertilizers and pesticides, the uses of these chemicals can pollute groundwater surfaces

Soil Erosion:

Occasionally, palm oil plantations can be planted in unorganized arrangements

Oil palms can be planted on steep slopes, causing erosion

As a result, flooding is increased and silt is deposited into ports and rivers

Climate Change:

Forest fires can be used to clear vegetation in palm oil plantations releases CO2

Indonesias practice with this process leads to it being the third-largest global emitter of greenhouse gasses

https://www.worldwildlife.org/industries/palm-oil

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Palm Oil and Nigeria - Maahi Patel and Aditi Kamath

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Palm Oil and Nigeria - Maahi Patel and Aditi Kamath

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.ft.com/content/d7dc168d-c9ff-42a8-88e6-319e40a179cf

Nigeria used to be the leading palm oil producer around 1960

They started to focus on crude oil exports which made them reach 5th in the rankings for palm oil

They believed that producing more palm oil was more beneficial

It had good use for cooking and it could be used for toothpaste and soap

In 2015 the government banned importing palm oil

After this ban, Nigeria has had a significant increase in palm oil production

Even though their production had increased, the supply couldn’t meet the demand

More money goes to the bigger companies rather than the smaller farmers

Releaf, a company that takes palm nuts and extracts the palm kernel oil from them, the oil is them put into soap and food

Palm oil is one of the main things that are contributing to deforestation all over the world

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https://www.reuters.com/world/india/india-cuts-tax-crude-palm-oil-imports-help-consumers-refiners-2022-02-13/

India cuts taxes on palm oil imports.

India is trying to gain local prices, help refiners and consumers.

The imports have gone from 5% to 7.5%.

India’s government is trying to bring in local prices or domestic prices by decreasing the import tax.

The tax difference between crude palm oil and refined palm oil leads to difference in the imports.

To control the prices of edible oil, tax reduction on the refined and crude palm oil will be an input.

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https://www.wwf.org.uk/updates/8-things-know-about-palm-oil

- palm oil is an edible vegetable oil that is edible and it comes from the fruit of palm oil trees.
- palm oil is in 50% of the things we humans consume and use on a daily basis. For example, things like shampoo, lipstick, deodorant, pizza, ect.
- palm oil is an efficient crop that is able to produce high quantities of it soil on smaller areas of land and it is widely used.
- it has been a major drive of deforestation and it is destroying the habitats of different animals in the wild.
- there has been a foundation that set different practices down for producing and sourcing palm oil and its the best ways without destroying other habitats and causing more issues.
- there are many people out there, especially farmers who’s lives depend on palm oil, because that is there job and it has the most production all year around they have a job.
- in the UK they set a commitment that 100% of their palm oil that is being used has to be from sources that don’t harm nature or people.
- the best thing humans can do is avoid boycotting palm oil and trying to support its production and help out with other solutions to safer farming.

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Adeel & Arjun How the world got hooked on palm oil

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Adeel & Arjun How the world got hooked on palm oil

# data[].attributes.body
- A magical fruit made everything better. The magical fruit was Palm.
- Forests were burned down so more trees of that fruit were planted.
- There was a lot of nasty smoke and all of the creatures in the forest ran away.
- 85% of palm oil comes Malaysia and Indonesia
- Between 1995 and 2015 the production of palm has quadrupled
-  Today 3 billion people in 150 countries use products that contain palm oil and will use 8 kg of palm oil every year
- The production of palm oil usually contains a lot of labor and human right abuses
- The financial incentive to produce more palm oil is helping to warm the planet and its destroying the only habitat of Sumatran tigers
- The reason its so popular is because of 5 reasons
- It replaced less healthy fats in foods in the west
- Very cheap
- Replaced expensive oils and personal care products
- It’s adopted as cooking oil in Asian countries
- Asian countries grew richer and they began to consume more fat and much of it was in the form of Palm oil
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/feb/19/palm-oil-ingredient-biscuits-shampoo-environmental

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Malaysia Plantation Stocks Rise Amid Elevated Palm Oil Prices.

Some Darby Plantation Bhd rose 7.4%

would gain 20% more than they did before in a month.

Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd. Rose to 5.5% in a month gained 11% more.

The market has been showing the supply risks for crude palm oil for a 4% decline in exports of 1.55 million tons of crude palm oil.

Palm oil goes for 4,100 ringgit or $980.04 a ton

when raising the price helps with the people producing it to gain more profit.

FGV Holdings Bhd, went up 3.3%

IOI Corp.’s stocks went up 1.0%

Some of the percentages don’t seem very high on paper, but if there’s less demand then the companies and plantations had to raise the prices so their company doesn’t get bankrupt.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/malaysia-plantation-stocks-rise-amid-elevated-palm-oil-prices-271644566532

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Indonesia is clearing less forest for palm oil, but it’s still not sustainable, activists say  -Chris Collins and Aidan Ayar

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Indonesia is clearing less forest for palm oil, but it’s still not sustainable, activists say  -Chris Collins and Aidan Ayar

# data[].attributes.body
https://news.mongabay.com/2022/01/indonesia-is-clearing-less-forest-for-palm-oil-but-its-still-not-sustainable/

Indonesia is the worlds biggest producer of palm oil.

In Indonesia a new analysis shows the number of oil palm plantations have decreased.

Since 2000, 3.1 million hectares of land out of a total 16.2 millón hectares were deforested due to the creation of more pal oil plantations.

A Greenpeace campaigner claimed that deforestation is necessary for there to be real “sustainability”.

A new push is being made, attempting to pit a complete stop to the deforestation within Indonesia.

Palm oil being produced is now being labeled, this way it is easy to tell if the only thing causing deforestation is the increase in number of palm oil plantations.

Information from “NGO Consortium for Agrarian Reform” show that conflict is being caused by the deforestation caused by palm oil.

Plantation owners are making attempts to expand, and finding other places for them to mass produce palm oil, without regard for the effects. The owners are most likely blinded by wealth and success that they are not even giving the real after effects a second thought.

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Indonesia is clearing less forest for palm oil, but it's still not sustainable, activists say

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JAKARTA - Deforestation for new oil palm plantations in Indonesia has decreased over the past decade, strengthening the case that palm oil doesn't have to be associated with the destruction of forests, according to a new analysis. The findings from the environmental NGO Auriga came from comparing forest cover in 2000 with 2019 in areas [...]

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Palm oil firms on weak output
- On February 15, 2022, Malaysian palm oil futures ticked up on Tuesday, after the end of a high record during the previous session.
- The benchmark palm oil contract for April delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange gained 11 ringgit, or 0.19%, to 5678 ringgit a tonne during early trade. It fell 0.36% during the overnight trade.
- Palm oil is affected by price movements in related oils, as they compete for a share in the global vegetable oils market.
- Oil prices fell as investor took profits from the previous day tally to 7 year highs and as global stock markets slumped.
- Asian share branch marked dropped, as investors contemplated the implications of a potential imminent Russian invasion of Ukraine.

https://mettisglobal.news/palm-oil-firms-on-weak-output/

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
February 15, 2022: Malaysian palm oil futures ticked up on Tuesday, after ending at a record high in the previous session, underpinned by weak production and expectations of improving demand, although weakness in rival edible oils capped gains. The benchmark palm oil contract for April delivery on…

# data[].attributes.body
BY: SUMMER & SUHAVEE

https://www.wwf.org.uk/updates/8-things-know-about-palm-oil

-Palm oil is the main derive for deforestation

-Destroys the habitat of endangered species

-Remains some exploitation of workers and child labor

-The RSPO was created to help with he concerns of palm oil and its affects on the environment

-RSPO has a production standard that sets best practices producing and sourcing palm oil

-It’s resistance to oxidation provides a longer life on the shelves of stores causing increase in supply and buy

-contributes to climate change and sends out a lot of different toxic, harmful greenhouse gases

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The RSPO is the global standard for the sustainable production of palm oil. When palm oil is produced in adherence to RSPO standards, growers help to protect the environment and the local communities who depend on the crop for their livelihoods, so that palm oil can continue to play a key role in food security, economic development, and food supply chains. We should continue to use RSPO certified sustainable palm oil in products, as replacing it would result in more deforestation and natural habitat conversion. RSPO certified products that use palm oil from 'Segregated' or 'Identity Preserved' supply chains offer the greatest assurance of sustainable palm oil.

Along with other organisations, WWF plays an active role in influencing and shaping the RSPO standard to make sure it puts in place more safeguards for people and the planet. In November 2018, the RSPO standard was strengthened and it now represents an essential tool that can help companies achieve their commitments to palm oil that is free of deforestation, conversion of other natural habitats like peatlands, and the exploitation of people.

8. What is being done in the UK?

In 2012, the UK Government recognised that we were part of the palm oil problem and could also be part of the solution. They set a commitment for 100% of the palm oil used in the UK to be from sustainable sources that don't harm nature or people. In 2019, 70% of the total palm oil imports to the UK were sustainable. This is great progress but there is more to be done to get to 100%.

An area that represents a substantial gap in the uptake of certified sustainable palm the use of palm-derived ingredients in animal feed - for chickens, pigs and cows, for example. Much of this palm oil material is unlikely to be certified. This area requires much stronger transparency and ambition from the UK industry, and is going to be critical over the coming years if we are to truly tackle the UK's palm oil footprint.

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Palm oil is one of the most efficient and widely used vegetable oils that comes from the fruit of oil palm trees. We've broken down they key facts.

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Maya Davis, Natalie Grant, Manika Vaidya: Malaysia’s road to sustainable Palm oil

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Maya Davis, Natalie Grant, Manika Vaidya: Malaysia’s road to sustainable Palm oil

# data[].attributes.body
Malaysia wanted all palm oil fields to be sustainable in 2025

Even though it provided many jobs, it caused great deforestation and was bad for the environment

It is harder for small and medium sized growers to comply and earn a RSPO certification

An RSPO certification is a certification that states that palm oil is sustainable

Palm oil is essential for household goods

Sabah produces 6% of the global total of palm oil in 2020

Malaysia is apart of more than 100 nations that want to end deforestation by 2030

Many countries are attempting to have more sustainable palm oil plantations, but their goals are hard to meet as many items need to use palm oil as an ingredient

Pepsi, Walmart, Nestle, and other brands launched the Forest Positive Coalition of Action in 2020 to stop commodity supply chains that fuel deforestation

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Sabah state in Malaysia is working to adapt its palm oil industry, ensuring all growers are sustainable producers by 2025.

Whilst the palm oil industry has brought jobs to nearly 4.5 million people in Indonesia and Malaysia, it has also caused mass deforestation.

The Sabah government hopes that these revolutionary efforts will help protect forests, end labour abuses and improve agriculture practices.

Malaysia's Sabah state, on Borneo island, is looking to revolutionise its palm oil industry with a decade-long initiative that will ensure all growers adopt ethical standards and are certified as sustainable producers by 2025.

The innovative project, launched in 2015, brings together the state's authorities, plantation owners, palm oil traders and buyers, green groups and local communities.

Led by the Sabah government, the scheme will help all oil palm growers - big and small - first earn national-level green certification as a stepping stone to meeting the global standard managed by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).

It is hoped the state's effort will help protect and restore forests, improve agriculture practices and oil palm yields, resolve land disputes, end labour abuses and eventually give producers access to international premium-paying buyers.

The "jurisdictional" approach being pursued across Sabah is "globally recognised as a pioneering model" to tackle deforestation and improve labour rights in the supply chain, said Robecca Jumin, head of conservation in Sabah for green group WWF-Malaysia, which is backing the initiative.

While large companies have the resources to earn RSPO certification, small and medium-sized growers find it harder to comply and need a support system like Sabah's, she added.

Here's why the state's scheme matters, both to communities and global efforts to protect ecosystems and the climate:

What is palm oil and what are its uses?

The oil palm tree originates in West Africa where it grows in the wild to heights of more than 60 feet (18.3 metres).

Oil palm was introduced to Malaysia by the British and to Indonesia by the Dutch in the mid-1800s, and was first planted as an ornamental tree.

The palms start bearing fruit about 30 months after planting, and are productive for the next 20 to 30 years. They produce four to 10 times more oil than other vegetable oil crops per unit of cultivated land.

Palm oil is used in a wide range of food and household products, from biscuits, ice-cream and chocolate spread to soaps and cosmetics, as well as in biofuels.

Malaysia and Indonesia account for about 90% of global palm oil output, while India, China, Indonesia and Europe are the main consumers.

Sabah produced about 5 million tonnes of palm oil in 2020, or 6% of the global total, according to WWF.

How have palm plantations impacted Southeast Asia's forests?

Across Indonesia and Malaysia, about 4.5 million people earn their living from palm oil production. The business has helped lift millions out of poverty, industry officials say.

But in many parts of the two Southeast Asian nations, the clearance of land to grow oil palm has caused deforestation, despite pledges by big firms to end it.

Indonesia, which introduced a moratorium on primary forest clearing in 2011, was among the top four countries for rainforest loss in 2020, according to Global Forest Watch, a satellite monitoring service. Malaysia was ranked ninth.

Malaysia, which has lost nearly a fifth of its old-growth forest since 2001, set a five-year cap on its total palm oil plantation area in 2019 and, before the COVID-19 pandemic, had plans to increase fines and jail terms for illegal logging.

About 65% of Sabah state is still covered by lush forests home to often-endangered wildlife including wild boar, orangutans, proboscis monkeys and pygmy elephants.

Just over half of its forests are designated as reserves or protected by law, officials say.

Why is forest protection so important globally?

Destroying rainforest has major implications for international goals to curb climate change as trees absorb about a third of the planet-warming emissions produced worldwide, but release carbon back into the air when they rot or are burned.

Forests also help clean up air and water, support human health, offer flood protection and mitigate heat in cities.

Slash-and-burn practices linked to palm oil production are often blamed for the annual Indonesian forest fires whose smoke creates a thick haze over large parts of Southeast Asia.

Malaysia and Indonesia are among the more than 100 nations that pledged to halt deforestation by 2030 at November's COP26 climate summit, after previous efforts failed to make headway.

Conservationists say Sabah's green standards drive could be replicated elsewhere and help countries achieve their pledges to cut climate-heating emissions.

What's the World Economic Forum doing about deforestation?

What is the palm oil industry doing to stop deforestation?

Over the last decade, pressure from consumers and campaigners has pushed big corporations that grow, trade and buy palm oil to tackle labour abuses on plantations and commit to ending deforestation.

Some major buyers - including Italian confectioner Ferrero and Cheerios cereal-maker General Mills - have pledged only to procure supplies certified as sustainable.

Both producers and buyers have also teamed up with green groups to monitor and rid supply chains of deforestation, including by investing in tracking technologies.

Some other palm oil buyers have switched to using alternative vegetable oils.

But all those efforts have yet to bear much fruit.

High-profile companies in the Consumer Goods Forum struggled to meet a 2020 goal set a decade earlier to buy only sustainably produced commodities, including palm oil, soy and beef.

Forum members, including Carrefour, Walmart, General Mills, Mars, Nestle, Unilever and PepsiCo, in 2020 launched a "Forest Positive Coalition of Action" in a new bid to stop commodity supply chains fuelling forest loss and to curb climate change.

The RSPO, an industry body of consumers, green groups and growers that promotes the use of certified sustainable palm-oil products, tightened its rules in 2018, imposing a ban on clearing forests and converting peatland for plantations.

Singapore, meanwhile, has set its sights on becoming the first country to use only sustainable palm oil by 2023 under a green push to tackle forest fires and air pollution.

This article is published in collaboration with Reuters

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

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This Borneo state is bringing about a green palm oil revolution, here's how

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Sabah state in Malaysia is working to adapt its palm oil industry, ensuring all growers are sustainable producers by 2025. Whilst the palm oil industry has brought jobs to nearly 4.5 million people in Indonesia and Malaysia, it has also caused mass deforestation.

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This is an image of a palm plantation. Despite the clear abundance of palm plantations across the globe, prices are still rising for refined palm oil.

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Effective duty on crude palm oil cut to 5.5% to cool edible oil prices.

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Effective duty on crude palm oil cut to 5.5% to cool edible oil prices.

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Name: Alex Amodio and Anuj Kakumanu

Link:
https://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/effective-duty-on-crude-palm-oil-cut-to-5-5-to-cool-edible-oil-prices-122021300070_1.html

Summary:

- The required payments on palm oil was brought down by 5.5 percent from 8.25 percent earlier, after taking into account agricultural development and social welfare.
- An industry body, SEA, has been demanding that the difference between crude and refined palm oil should be 11% more as higher imports of refined oil impact domestic refineries.
- These changes will enable domestic refiners to operate refinery more economically.
- There has been a surge in products that require refined palm oil as opposed to products that use crude palm oil.
- As a result, prices of refined palm oil will go up and prices of crude palm oil will go down as the industry and market for palm oil changes.

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Finding Replacements For Palm Oil - Anirudh Prodduturu and Santhosh Divyakolu

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Finding Replacements For Palm Oil - Anirudh Prodduturu and Santhosh Divyakolu

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Palm Oil is one of the most destructive ingredients you can use

The world uses 70 million metric tons of palm oil per year

Palm Oil plantations are driving deforestation and biodiversity loss.

Tropical forests are burned down in order to make way for palm trees.

Huge source of greenhouse gas emissions.

There are efforts to create a more sustainable version of palm oil

Locus Fermentation Solutions is making palm-free ingredients for products like shampoo and body wash using fermentation.

Inside small vessels, yeast fed with sugar make a product called sophorolipids, a type of surfactant.

This product pulls away oil and grease from wet hair.

Typical shampoos often come from ingredients created by fossil fuels or palm oil. This means that the oil has to be processed into derivatives.

Processing the raw oil uses much more energy as well.

Xylome is testing an alternative called “yoil” which is produced by yeast, and is almost identical to palm oil

Link: https://www.fastcompany.com/90716324/palm-oil-is-one-of-the-most-destructive-ingredients-you-use-every-day-these-startups-are-trying-to-replace-it