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possible direction of case study, still too little to write a 3000 word report

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Found in everything from shampoo to donuts, palm oil is now the most common vegetable oil in the world-and also one of the world's leading deforestation drivers.

Palm oil is extracted from the fruit of the oil palm tree, Elaeis guineensis, which thrives in humid climates. The large majority of palm oil production occurs in just two countries, Malaysia and Indonesia, where huge swaths of tropical forests and peatlands (carbon-rich swamps) are being cleared to make way for oil palm plantations, releasing carbon into the atmosphere to drive global warming while shrinking habitats for a multitude of endangered species.

Palm oil's impacts

The areas being cleared for palm oil are particularly rich in carbon. Indonesian forests store even more carbon per hectare than the Brazilian Amazon thanks to their carbon-rich soil; palm cultivation there was responsible for 2 to 9 percent of worldwide emissions from tropical land use between 2000 and 2010. In Malaysia, the carbon stock of tropical forests can range up to 99 million kilograms of carbon per square mile. That's equivalent to the emissions from driving an average car from New York to San Francisco and back 76 times.

One huge source of global warming emissions associated with palm oil is the draining and burning of the carbon-rich swamps known as peatlands. Peatlands can hold up to 18 to 28 times as much carbon as the forests above them; when they are drained and burned, both carbon and methane are released into the atmosphere-and unless the water table is restored, peatlands continue to decay and release global warming emissions for decades.

As if that wasn't bad enough, the burning of peatlands releases a dangerous haze into the air, resulting in severe health impacts and significant economic losses. Each year, more than 100,000 deaths in Southeast Asia can be attributed to particulate matter exposure from landscape fires, many of which are peat fires.

Beyond its global warming and human health impacts, palm oil production also takes a toll on biodiversity and human rights. Only about 15 percent of native animal species can survive the transition from primary forest to plantation. Among the species vulnerable to palm oil expansion are orangutans, tigers, rhinoceros, and elephants. Furthermore, palm oil growers have also been accused of using forced labor, seizing land from local populations, and other human rights abuses.

Government and industry responses

The impacts of palm oil production have begun to draw a response from both governments and the private sector in recent years.

There has been significant movement from Southeast Asian governments to address palm oil impacts, though there is still much to be done. In 2010, Indonesia established a moratorium on new concessions for oil palm, timber and logging operations on primary forests and peatlands. In addition, Indonesia has responded to worsening haze conditions by calling for a halt to clearance and drainage of peatlands, and for the restoration of those already drained. Malaysia has also begun to act to protect some of its forests, though its protections thus far have not been as strong as Indonesia's.

On the private-sector side, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) was formed to bring oil producers, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other stakeholders together to improve the sustainability of palm oil production. However, current RSPO standards fall short in important respects. For instance, while primary forests are protected under RSPO regulations, secondary, disturbed, or regenerating forests are left unprotected. Peatlands are also given limited protection under RSPO guidelines. So "RSPO-certified" does not necessarily mean "deforestation-free."

Working up the supply chain

One promising avenue for reducing palm oil's deforestation impact is by influencing the companies that buy palm oil from global traders to use in their consumer products. Vegetable oils are one of the most traded global commodities, and this is particularly true of palm oil. Unfortunately, as recently as 2013, much of the palm oil entering the global market was not deforestation-free.

However, in response to intense pressure from UCS, our supporters, our ally organizations, and the public, a growing number of American consumer companies have adopted commitments to purchase exclusively deforestation-free and peat-free palm oil. As of 2016, more than 60 percent of palm oil traded globally was covered by such commitments-a huge change from just three years before. As more companies make deforestation-free commitments, they will influence decisions made further up the supply chain by traders and producers.

Palm oil production will continue to expand. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently banned trans fats from American products, and palm oil-one of the few vegetable oils that is solid at room temperature like trans fats-is a likely replacement. Although expansion has recently slowed, growth is expected to continue in a select group of countries over the next decade, including Malaysia and Indonesia. And other countries, including Brazil, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Peru, and Colombia, have forested area suitable for palm oil cultivation. It will be crucial to ensure that this expansion does not continue to come at the expense of forests.

Learn more

Hungry for more information about palm oil and deforestation? Check out UCS' Palm Oil Scorecard.

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Found in everything from shampoo to donuts, palm oil is now the most common vegetable oil in the world-and also one of the world's leading deforestation drivers. Palm oil is extracted from the fruit of the oil palm tree, Elaeis guineensis, which thrives in humid climates.

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undp - united nations development programme

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UNDP | Procurement Notices - 21923 - IC/UNDP/EU/059/2015 - Communicat

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Unsustainable palm oil development fuels widespread rainforest destruction, human rights abuses, illegal wildlife smuggling, climate change and the destruction of delicate ecosystems across South-East Asia.

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Asia Pacific - "No Deforestation. No Peat. No Exploitation": The pledges echoing throughout the palm oil sector, as major consumer goods manufacturers and retailers seek to remove deforestation from supply chains, sound simple enough. But the commitments are highly complex, and major palm oil corporate groups along the value chain are struggling to clearly define and operationalize them.

And in the world's largest producer of palm oil, Indonesia, which is planning to boost supply through the expansion of plantations into forest and peatland areas, these companies are facing public opposition from the national government.

Therefore, while simple in their aim, the zero deforestation commitments, and their associated sustainability goals, have divided the palm oil sector in terms of which rules to follow and whose rules to follow.

A POLEMIC CROP

The rapid expansion of oil palm plantations across Indonesia during the past decade-the crop now covers 10.5 million hectares-has been accompanied by fervent controversy.

On the one hand, the palm oil industry generates significant fiscal earnings for the government and stimulates economic growth in rural areas, with important spillover effects on the development of local infrastructure and support to people's livelihoods. On the other hand, large-scale plantation development has been implicated in numerous social conflicts, and the unequal distribution of economic benefits remains an issue.

But perhaps the crop's greatest offense is its potential for devastating environmental impacts. Oil palm expansion often occurs at the expense of both primary and secondary forests, and, increasingly, of peatlands. The result is major loss of biodiversity and release of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which certainly raises questions about when, if ever, palm oil can qualify as ' carbon neutral '.

The impacts of unchecked oil palm expansion once again attracted global attention in 2015 as forest fires raged across Sumatra and Kalimantan, with huge costs to the environment and human health. Although attempts to profit from land speculation and oil palm cultivation are an important factor triggering the spread of the fires, these are associated not only with oil palm. The Indonesian government has estimated that deforestation and fires account for 63 percent of the country's GHG emissions, but other estimates suggest that it could be as high as 80 percent.

PRIVATE SECTOR, BOLD COMMITMENTS

Major corporate groups began embracing the concept of sustainable production of palm oil through certification under the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), a standard that has seen a slow but steady increase in uptake since its inception in 2005. Some producers have also adopted, in parallel, the International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC) standard that enables them to export to biodiesel markets under the European Union's Renewable Energy Directive (RED). These same companies, operating in Indonesia, must also achieve ISPO certification. Therefore, companies have often been forced to apply three certification standards to the same drop of oil.

Growing pressure from civil society groups, in the form of attacks on corporate brands and reputation, led several major consumer goods manufacturers to go above and beyond these standards and pledge to delink their supply chains completely from deforestation. Momentum began in 2010 when the Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) and its members committed to zero net deforestation by 2020. This was followed by individual and collective pledges, notably the Sustainable Palm Oil Manifesto (SPOM), the Indonesia Palm Oil Pledge (IPOP), and the New York Declaration on Forests in 2014.

As of December 2015, Supply Change estimated that 188 companies had made commitments to support sustainable supply in the palm oil sector, 61 of which included commitments to zero deforestation. These pledges to zero deforestation have been embraced by many downstream processors and traders, but have yet to be fully understood and embraced by their third-party suppliers, including smallholders.

GOVERNMENT, WALKING TWO PATHS

The Indonesian government is pursuing two parallel agendas, with implications for both forest conservation and palm oil development. It has put in place policies to protect primary forests and peatlands while at the same time promoting palm oil production and seeking to make it sustainable.

It is the contravention of Indonesian law and threats to national sovereignty that seem to have had the greatest impact.

Pablo Pacheco

The Yudhoyono administration (2005-2014) installed several policies to protect primary forests and peatlands, the most prominent of which was the Presidential moratorium on the issuance on new plantation licenses on forest and peatland. Despite its good intentions, its effectiveness at reducing deforestation has been called in to question.

Additional efforts include regulations on land-use planning, the management and protection of peatlands, and the One Map Initiative, which aims to develop a unified map agreed upon by all ministries. However, these initiatives have come up against numerous barriers to implementation, including tensions between government levels and sectors, the intertwined interests of local politicians and investors, uneven law enforcement, and government reliance on revenues from concession permits.

In response to the fire and haze crisis in mid-2015, the government issued a presidential instruction banning the clearance and exploitation of peatlands, as well as new planting in burned areas. Yet it remains unclear how this will be implemented and enforced and whether it will eventually be transformed into a higher-level legal instrument.

In 2011, to support sustainable palm oil, the Indonesian government developed and launched the mandatory Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO) standard based on pre-existing Indonesian legislation, but third-party audited. But again, ISPO implementation has been slow, forcing the original deadline for compliance to be postponed. The illegal status of many smallholders and plantation companies, located in public lands, has made it particularly difficult to achieve broad uptake of ISPO, as well as implementing other capacity-building and productivity-enhancing interventions.

In July 2015, the Indonesian government launched the Crude Palm Oil (CPO) fund, built on a levy from palm oil exports. The fund is to be used primarily for biodiesel subsidies, as well as complementary activities that support the development of sustainable plantations, expand the downstream processing industry, and build capacity among smallholders. As a complementary step, in November 2015, Indonesia and Malaysia created the Council of Palm Oil Producer Countries (CPOPC), with the primary goal of managing global CPO stocks and harmonizing national sustainability standards.

One of the key challenges for government remains the fragmented governance of the palm oil sector. Regulation of the industry is divided into sectoral silos, and the lack of harmony between ministries often means that the government ends up "tripping over its own feet", as the presence of one policy or regulation limits the success of another.

To add a layer of complexity, some subnational governments have been actively embracing "No Deforestation" commitments, seeing them as an opportunity for increased investment and green growth. They see potential for improved land-use planning and tenure clarification, smallholder inclusion and production practices, and they recognize the need for supportive provincial regulations to enforce sustainable supply practices. Although many of these efforts originate from the climate change agenda, they are increasingly heading toward supporting low-carbon development strategies.

Neither public rules nor private commitments must dictate the rules of the game.

Pablo Pacheco

By taking actions along both these paths, which are not clearly articulated, the government risks undermining its own capacity to transform the palm oil sector. Linking the two more strongly will be important for paving the road toward a more sustainable palm oil sector.

OPPORTUNITIES AND RISKS

The broad goals of the zero-deforestation movement are threefold, as I have described in an earlier article: to stop expansion on forest and peatlands, while ensuring smallholder inclusion and sustaining economic growth and profits. Meeting these parallel objectives creates many challenges, but also brings unprecedented opportunities for change.

Commitments create an important incentive to invest in intensification and improve plantation management with more efficient use of inputs. This includes upgrading smallholder production systems, and expanding plantation development into "degraded" or "low-carbon" lands, thus helping to meet national emission reduction targets under Indonesia's Intended Nationally Determined Contribution ( INDC).

The main risk associated with the commitments is that of excluding those smallholders who cannot meet, or report on, stringent "zero deforestation" standards because of unresolved legal issues and capacity constraints. The risks of fragmentation in to green (clean) and brown (dirty) supply chains, as a result, could prompt leakage effects as some suppliers could turn their attention to less demanding markets.

In addition, the potential for large-scale producers to intrude on community and smallholder lands, considered as "low-carbon" or degraded, may lead to increased social conflicts, while committed companies are still divided over a definition of forests and a methodology for designating "go" and "no-go" areas - see the HCS approach, HCS plus, HCV and RSPO Next.

Of primary concern to many at the government level, however, is the potential to slow economic development of rural areas. This is a legitimate concern shared by many local stakeholders.

THE POLITICS OF IMPLEMENTATION

The capacity of some large firms to incorporate social and environmental criteria into their operations is improving, partly as a result of the zero-deforestation commitments. Efforts to improve traceability within supply chains are underway, but for many this stops at the mill. While company disclosure is improving, transparency varies, and independent evidence and monitoring are lacking.

The lack of independent evaluation of the commitments and their impacts on equity is worrisome to many stakeholders, but in the current political climate, this is of minor concern to the companies.

A major issue for the implementation of commitments is that the Indonesian government has expressed open opposition to the very concept of the "zero deforestation" movement. The government's concern is that the risks of these commitments may outweigh the opportunities, in terms of the threats they pose to smallholders and SMEs, and the potential for undermining local development.

However, it is the contravention of Indonesian law and threats to national sovereignty that seem to have had the greatest impact. The commitments embraced by groups such as IPOP, framed around compliance with HCV and HCS, are seen by the government as contradicting its national laws and regulations on land and forest governance.

In a different line, the Indonesian government is doing its best to support domestic producers by stimulating and supporting expansion of the domestic market using the CPO Fund to subsidize biofuel blending quotas. This is seen as an attempt to transform the sector by improving its efficiency.

Recently, national regulations set a blending target of 20 percent for the transportation sector, and 30 percent for electricity generation. The creation of the CPOPC can also be seen as an attempt to regain control over the global palm oil market and sovereignty in regulating the industry. Furthermore, it is hoped that key palm oil purchasing countries, such as China and India, will embrace the CPOPC standards for sustainability, despite a lack of clarity over what these will actually be.

This brings us back to the questions of which rules and whose rules should be applied for sustainable palm oil, an issue that is related to the extent to which end markets actually care about those rules.

A MULTIFACETED PUZZLE

The public and private sectors each faces its own challenges.

The public sector's main dilemma is how to govern the industry so that it supports medium-scale and smallholder producers, but does so under credible and enforceable national governance standards. It must bear in mind that 50 percent of the industry lacks access to capital and training, as do the civil servants whose job it is to enforce such standards. At the same time, the government must maintain its competitive edge in international markets so that the industry can continue to contribute to national fiscal earnings and economic spillovers.

The private sector must respond to pressure from civil society and buyer demands to maintain its market, but it must do so in such a way that doesn't risk losing third-party suppliers. Businesses must do this at the same time as making a profit, finding investments to upgrade their value chains, and gaining efficiencies from production and improved supply chain design and management.

Solving this puzzle requires a collaborative approach: bringing together public and private initiatives and pooling finance.

Pablo Pacheco

Third-party suppliers and smallholders face multiple challenges, many of which they are unprepared for. But, ultimately, they must protect their position in the market without risking any chance to expand their plantations, so to keep profiting from this polemic crop.

There are not many other options anyway.

The irony is that all have the same objective: healthy economic growth.

SEEKING A RESOLUTION

Solving this puzzle requires a collaborative approach: bringing together public and private initiatives and pooling finance. Neither public rules nor private commitments must dictate the rules of the game. The private sector must do what it does best-invest and innovate to gain efficiencies and increase profits-while government must look to protect the wider national interests and natural capital.

To benefit both the Indonesian people and the nation's rich environmental heritage, the government must think seriously about resolving internal disputes and power plays, legalizing smallholder land rights, conditionally granting subsidies or supporting those who adhere to higher production standards and include independent smallholder in their value chains, as well as stimulating land use zoning efforts taking into account needs for production, conservation and restoration.

Companies, for their part, must focus on improving yields in their own plantations and those of their suppliers, reducing their GHG emissions, and providing finance and other capacity-building services to their third-party suppliers as part of improved strategies for supply chain management.

This is a mammoth challenge.

We must hope that decision-makers in both private and public sectors embrace collaboration as a way of resolving the puzzle of how to achieve a sustainable palm oil supply.

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Zero deforestation in Indonesia: Pledges, politics and palm oil

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"No Deforestation. No Peat. No Exploitation": The pledges echoing throughout the palm oil sector, as major consumer goods manufacturers and retailers seek to remove deforestation from supply chains, sound simple enough. But the commitments are highly complex, and major palm oil corporate groups alon

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Palm oil is literally everywhere - in our foods, cosmetics, cleaning products and fuels. It's a source of huge profits for multinational corporations, while at the same time destroying the livelihoods of smallholders. Displacement of indigenous peoples, deforestation and loss of biodiversity are all consequences of our palm oil consumption. How could it come to this? And what can we do in everyday life to protect people and nature?

5-minute info - palm oil

The issue - rainforest on our dinner tables and in our fuel tanks

The impact - suffering and death in producer countries, climate havoc

The solution - a revolution on our dinner tables and in our fuel tanks

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Palm oil - deforestation for everyday products

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Palm oil is literally everywhere - in our foods, cosmetics, cleaning products and fuels. It's a source of huge profits for multinational corporations, while at the same time destroying the livelihoods of smallholders. Displacement of indigenous peoples, deforestation and loss of biodiversity are all consequences of our palm oil consumption.

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JAKARTA (Reuters) - The Indonesian government is asking major palm oil companies to row back on the historic "no deforestation" pledges they made at last year's United Nations climate change summit, officials and company sources say.

Major palm oil companies were invited to a series of meetings at the economics ministry last week, where officials expressed concern the pledges the plantation companies made are causing big problems for smaller palm oil firms in their supply chain, the sources told Reuters.

The government has asked palm oil firms who signed the Indonesian Palm Oil Pledge (IPOP) to exempt smallholders because they are not yet ready to practice the same level of sustainable forest practices as the big players, said Musdhalifah Machmud, deputy minister for food and agriculture at the coordinating ministry for economic affairs.

"Yah, they need to let smallholders fulfill their trade," she told Reuters.

Indonesia is the world's biggest palm oil producer and exporter and its industry employs nearly 5 million workers.

A top official at one of the major palm oil companies, who did not want to be named, said the companies "received guidance notes" from ministry officials.

PALM OIL STIGMA

A representative of an environmental group said the government is urging big palm oil firms to "water their stance down" by urging them to continue to buy palm oil from their suppliers, even if that company is cutting down forests for new plantations.

"This would pretty much ruin the whole attempt to create an industry-wide no-deforestation situation to remove the stigma from Indonesian palm oil," the NGO representative said.

The pressure from the national government comes after local governments in Indonesia have begun taking away concessions from palm oil companies who tried to convert them into conservation forests, several big palm oil companies told Reuters.

The controversy over the IPOP pledges is arising as the Indonesia government comes under mounting pressure from its neighbors over the smoky haze from forest fires that has blanketed much of Southeast Asia the past month.

Plantation firms who use "slash and burn" techniques to clear forests - most of them smallholders now - are one of the biggest reasons for the fires.

Home to the world's third-largest tropical forests - and the world's fifth-largest emitter of greenhouse gases mainly due to their destruction - Indonesia will be one of the countries in the spotlight at December's U.N. climate change conference in Paris. The meeting will try to get legally binding commitments from the 190 member nations to slash greenhouse gases.

SUPERMARKET PRODUCTS

The spectacular growth of palm oil plantations over the past quarter-century, now covering over 11 million hectares in Indonesia or an area bigger than Iceland, has been a leading cause of deforestation.

Cheaper than other vegetable oils and low in trans-fat acids, palm oil has increasingly found its way into products throughout the supermarket, most commonly as cooking oil, but also everything from snack foods and chocolates to soaps and soup.

Around five years ago environmental activists began pressuring some of the world's biggest consumer goods companies to demand their palm oil suppliers adopt more sustainable forestry practices. They organized demonstrations outside suburban U.S. supermarkets. A prime-time documentary in April 2014 featured an angry Harrison Ford, clutching an orangutan on a visit to peat forests in Indonesia being clear-cut for plantations. Activists and media reports began highlighting the use of child workers and forced labor on some plantations.

The campaign worked. In September of last year, all the major Indonesian palm oil companies signed a "No Deforestation, No Peat, No Exploitation" pledge. Together, they and their supply chains controlled well over half the global palm oil trade. Indonesia's two biggest timber and paper companies, Asia Pacific Resources International Ltd and Asia Pulp and Paper have signed similar forestry sustainability pledges.

Greenpeace, which in 2010 had launched a YouTube video against Nestle for buying palm oil from a subsidiary of Singapore-based Golden-Agri Resources, then joined hands with their former arch villains to help them implement the pledges.

It seemed like a turning point in the battle against climate change.

MONITORING COMPLIANCE

After the cascading movement of companies and their customers to adopt deforestation pledges, environmental activists and some of the companies themselves, set up online platforms to monitor compliance with their IPOP pledges.

Wilmar International Ltd, the world's largest palm oil trader, unveiled an online platform this year that provides transparency and "traceability" into its supply chain, including the names and locations of refineries and palm oil mills.

"Wilmar is the first agro-industrial giant to offer a way to follow palm oil all the way back to the mills where the oil is processed," says Scott Poynton of The Forest Trust, a forestry activist group, which brokered Wilmar's zero deforestation policy and built the online dashboard.

Rainforest Action Network started a "Snackfood 20 Scorecard" that monitors the implementation of deforestation pledges by companies that buy palm oil from major plantation firms for their products, such as PepsiCo Inc , Kellogg Co and Kraft Heinz Co.

The speed and alacrity with which the major plantation companies began enforcing their "no deforestation" pledges - which also apply to companies in their supply chain - caught both the national government and smaller growers by surprise.

Efforts by big palm oil firms to convert concessions into protected forests have run into roadblocks at the local government level.

CONFLICT OVER CONCESSIONS

When Golden Agri, one of the IPOP companies, tried to convert an area designated for plantations in Indonesian Borneo into a conservation forest, the local government threatened to revoke the concession, said Agus Purnomo, the company's director for strategic stakeholders agreement. He said the company was still negotiating with officials in the Kapuas Hulu district of West Kalimantan.

"If we are not developing it into plantations, they cancel (the concession) and give it to somebody else - a competitor," said Purnomo, a former director at WWF Indonesia and a presidential advisor on climate change.

Officials in Kapuas Hulu could not be reached for comment.

Wilmar and unlisted Singapore-based palm oil firm Musim Mas told Reuters they, too, had experienced problems similar to that of Golden Agri.

The conflict over whether concessions should be planted or preserved reflects a major policy dilemma in Indonesia: The forests are a prime source of employment and development in the world's fourth-most populous country, but their rapid depletion has economic as well as environmental consequences.

ENCROACHING ON POLICY

Palm oil is a key driver of economic growth in Indonesia, said Machmud at the economics ministry. And growth is slowing: Indonesia's GDP is expected to decline to 4.9 percent this year from above 6 percent over the last decade.

"Part of our country we have to protect for forests, and the other part we have to do some economic activity so the people around it can improve their prosperity," she said.

The no-deforestation pledges made by the big palm oil companies are putting smallholders at risk, she said.

"My concern is (small) farmers cannot sell," said Machmud. "The entire supply chain cannot do something that is not allowed by IPOP."

Moreover, IPOP was never coordinated with the government and encroaches on government policy and guidelines, she said.

The problem, she said, is that companies like Golden Agri are setting aside forests in their concession area for preservation that the government has already assigned for development.

"If you don't like it, no problem," she said. "Another company will come to develop it."

It's a stance that makes environmental groups unhappy.

The biggest palm oil and timber companies in Indonesia have all committed to the "no-deforestation" pledge and now they were losing concessions when they try to preserve forests, said Bustar Maitar, head of Greenpeace's campaign to save the forests in Indonesia. "This is enough to gain the momentum to tell the government that business as usual has already passed," he said.

HAZY POLICY

Caught in the middle is Nur Masripatin, appointed in June to the new role of director-general in charge of climate change policy within the newly merged environment and forestry ministry.

The government has had competing aims around development and conservation, she said in an interview, and her job is to help coordinate those priorities between different ministries.

The previous president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono took a high-profile approach to climate change policy because he "was more (about) exposing this country to the world," she said. "Our new president really wants to focus on developing the country and especially improving the welfare of the poor."

The environment and forestry ministry can do little about the conflicts over whether to preserve or develop forests in concession area, she added, because land use comes under the purview of the agricultural ministry.

It puts Indonesia in an awkward position in trying to defend its efforts to fight the forest fires - and the smothering haze it engenders - with its enraged neighbors. Malaysia's prime minister on Monday demanded that Indonesia take action against those setting fires in the forests.

Smallholder companies seeking to clear land for palm oil and pulp wood plantations have been accused of setting the fires that smolder for weeks in underground peat deposits in Sumatra and Indonesia's part of Borneo island.

Indonesia's Vice President Jusuf Kalla said his country had no need to apologize for a month or so of fire and haze each year. "Look at how long they have enjoyed fresh air from our green environment and forests when there were no fires," he said during a dialogue session with Indonesians in New York in late September. "Could be months. Are they grateful?"

Reporting by Michael Taylor.; Editing by Bill Tarrant

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advocacy groups / pressure groups / lobbies

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Big palm oil's pledge to preserve forests vexes Indonesia

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JAKARTA (Reuters) - The Indonesian government is asking major palm oil companies to row back on the historic "no deforestation" pledges they made at last year's United Nations climate change summit, officials and company sources say.

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Questions and answers about palm oil - Rainforest Rescue

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Palm oil plays a decisive role in the lives of almost everyone of us. Being a low-cost resource, palm oil is in great demand and is contained in virtually everything. You can find it in foods ranging from frozen pizza to chocolate bars, in laundry detergents and cleaning agents, in cosmetics, in diesel fuel tanks and in combined heat and power plants.

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Dear EarthTalk: Is it true that palm oil, common in snack foods and health & beauty products, is destroying rainforests? If so, what can consumers do about it?
-- Emma Miniscalco, via e-mail
It's no wonder that worldwide demand for palm oil has surged in recent years. Long used in cosmetics, palm oil is now all the rage in the snack food industry, since it is transfat-free and therefore seen as healthier than the shortening it replaces.

But to produce palm oil in large enough quantities to meet growing demand, farmers across Southeast Asia have been clearing huge swaths of biodiversity-rich tropical rainforest to make room for massive palm plantations. Today palm oil production is the largest cause of deforestation in Indonesia and other equatorial countries with dwindling expanses of tropical rainforest. Indonesia's endangered orangutan population, which depends upon the rainforest, has dwindled by as much as 50 percent in recent years.

The clearing of these forests is a big factor in global warming, given how much carbon dioxide (CO ₂) trees store when left alone. Once forests are cut, tons of CO ₂ heads skyward where it does the most harm. Also, when not replaced by palm oil plantations, rainforests help maintain water resources by absorbing rainfall and then releasing it into streams and rivers, thus minimizing flooding and soil depletion.

Simply boycotting palm oil and the products containing it may not help, as reduced demand could force the companies behind the plantations to instead initiate more intensive timber harvesting and a widespread conversion of the land to agriculture, which would add a heavy pollution load onto the already compromised land, air and water. It is up to the countries involved in palm oil production to regulate the industry and budget sufficient funds for enforcement. But with huge profits coming in from the sale of palm oil, public officials in Indonesia and elsewhere are loathe to clamp down on their golden goose.

Several of the largest palm oil producers have joined forces with banks and nonprofit groups to try to green up the industry. In 2003, some 200 commercial entities in the global palm oil supply chain met and established the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) to promote the growth of palm oil in an environmentally friendly manner. RSPO works to develop definitions and criteria for the sustainable production of palm oil, while facilitating the adoption of more green-friendly practices throughout the industry. The group celebrated its first shipment of "sustainable palm oil" to Europe this past November.

Despite progress, many green leaders are skeptical that RSPO has the teeth to make a positive impact on the fast-growing palm oil industry. Greenpeace International considers RSPO to be "little more than greenwash," pointing out that at least one RSPO-certified producer-United Plantations, a supplier to Nestlé and Unilever-is deforesting Indonesia's vulnerable peat land forests. And Sinar Mas, another major RSPO player, has cleared tropical rainforest all over the country for its palm oil plantations, and is still expanding rapidly. Greenpeace is calling for a moratorium on deforestation throughout Indonesia so that the RSPO and the government can take stock and then proceed accordingly.

CONTACTS: RSPO, www.rspo.org; Greenpeace, www.greenpeace.org.

EarthTalk is produced by E/The Environmental Magazine. GOT AN ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTION? Send it to: EarthTalk, c/o E/The Environmental Magazine, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881; submit it at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/thisweek/, or e-mail: earthtalk@emagazine.com. Read past columns at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/archives.php.

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Is Harvesting Palm Oil Destroying the Rainforests?

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Dear EarthTalk: Is it true that palm oil, common in snack foods and health & beauty products, is destroying rainforests? If so, what can consumers do about it? -- Emma Miniscalco, via e-mail It's no wonder that worldwide demand for palm oil has surged in recent years.

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official site links in with all other form of resourcers I would need to know for the essay, as it is the opne that knows the most about the use of responsible palm oil source

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The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil aims to promote the growth and use of sustainable palm oil through co-operation within the supply chain and open dialogue between its stakeholders.

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effect on wildlife as a global impact as it affects specie diversity and causes vulnerability of species

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Palm oil: how our consumer choices affect wildlife

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This video shows directly how the nvironment is affected by the deforestation and replantation, and it links to how ocals are affected, as they can be affected by the air-dissolved fertilizers, or the ashes of the forest can directly affect the locals.

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The Problem With Palm Oil | Fight for the Forests | TakePart

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shows direct impact on locals

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Indonesia's Palm Oil Industry is Destroying More Than Forests | TIME

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Useful when looking for points that arent as easily discovered online: contains a wider range of knowledge

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contains detail of every aspect: not as broad explanations, but brings up detail about pretty much everything that would need to be covered ont he mater: environmental impacts, social impacts

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Ethical Consumer looks at the palm oil industry and five palm oil-containing food products

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How have globaldemands effected locally and globally

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How have globaldemands effected locally and globally

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http://www.worldwatch.org/node/6059

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https://www.indonesia-investments.com/business/commodities/palm-oil/item166

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Having trouble reading this email? Download the PDF.

IN THIS ISSUE

Thematic Focus: Ecosystem Management and Resource Efficiency

Why is this issue important?

Oil palm ( Elaeis guineensis) is cultivated on approximately 15 million ha across the world (FAO 2009, Fitzherber and others 2008; Koh and Ghazoul 2008; Koh and Wilcove 2008a). The extracted palm oil is used in many food and household products as well as biodiesel production. Increases in global demand for food and fuel are driving forest clearance in the tropics, a significant portion of which is due to the rapid expansion of oil palm monocropping (Figure 1). Tropical forest is considered the most diverse terrestrial ecosystem (Corley and Tinker, 2003), and provides important ecosystem goods and services such as containment of large carbon stocks-an essential function in climate change mitigation (Bala and others 2007; Lapola and others 2010).
Figure 1. Part of an oil palm plantation at the border of intact forest. Jambi, Indonesia, December 2010. Photo by Iddy Farmer/CIFOR Oil palm: economic importance
The oil palm provides one of the leading vegetable oils produced globally, accounting for one-quarter of global consumption and approximately 60 per cent of international trade in vegetable oils (World Bank 2010). The oil extracted from these palms is included in several common products used all over the world such as margarine, baked goods and sweets, detergents and cosmetics (UNEP and UNESCO 2007). An estimated 74 per cent of global palm oil usage is for food products and 24 per cent is for industrial purposes (USDA 2010). Since the 1990s, the area occupied by oil palm cultivation has expanded worldwide by around 43 per cent, driven mainly by demand from India, China and the European Union (RSPO 2011; Figure 2).

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Figure 2. Top ten palm oil producers, importers and consumers at a global scale. Biodiesel from oil palms
Oil palm is among the most productive and profitable of tropical crops for biofuel production. High-yielding oil palm varieties developed by breeding programmes can produce over 20 tonnes of fresh fruit bunches/ha/yr under ideal management, which is equivalent to 5 tonnes oil/ha/year (excluding the palm kernel oil) (FAO 2002) (Figure 3). The oils form 10 per cent of the total dry biomass produced by the palm, but the 90 per cent left might be a source of fibre and cellulosic material for second-generation biofuel production (Basiron 2005). Production of biodiesel from oil palm has been increasing in recent years, particularly in Africa and Latin America (FAO 2010; Mitchell 2011).

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Figure 3. Oil palm is considered one of the highest yielding mass market oil seeds for first generation biofuels. Source: Lester 2006 Oil palm distribution
Oil palms are restricted to the tropics and have mainly been cultivated in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand in Southeast Asia, Nigeria in Africa, Colombia and Ecuador in South America and Papua New Guinea in Oceania (FAO 2009) (Figure 4). Global demand for palm oil is expected to double by 2020. Assessments to determine suitable locations for new oil palm plantations are ongoing (Figures 4 and 8). New plantations continue to be established and existing ones are being expanded (WWF 2011a). Environmental threats due to the effects of oil palm plantations have been broadly studied in Asia, mainly in Indonesia and Malaysia, where 85 per cent of global production is taking place.

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Figure 4. Surface cultivated and estimated tropical forested area suitable for oil palm plantations.
Major Findings and Implications
Oil palm monoculture and its effects
Traditionally, oil palm production was managed as part of mixed farming practice in West Africa. Today, most production is being expanded as an industrial-scale mono-crop, imposing significant environmental risks as well as impacts on local societies, particularly for people with limited economic capacities (Colchester 2010).

Modern oil palm cultivation is generally characterized by large monocultures of uniform age structure, low canopy, sparse undergrowth, a low-stability microclimate and intensive use of fertilizers and pesticides (Fitzherbert and others 2008). The oil palm tree generates fruits from the third year, with yield per tree increasing gradually until it peaks at approximately 20 years (FAO 2002). Hence, oil palm plantations are typically destroyed and replanted at 25 to 30 year intervals (Wahid and others 2005).

The process of palm oil production tends to reduce freshwater and soil quality, and adversely affects local communities which are dependent on ecosystem products (such as food and medicines) and ecosystem services (such as regulation of the hydrological cycle and soil protection) provided by the forests (Fitzherbert and others 2008).

From an ecological point of view, oil palm monocultures might form impervious barriers to species' migration and result in greater susceptibility to plant diseases. Conversion of natural forests increases habitat fragmentation and biodiversity loss. Abiotic edge effects include vulnerability to wind, desiccation and occurrence of fires (Danielsen and others 2009).

Moreover, as oil palm plantations contain less biomass and have a shorter lifespan than natural forests, less carbon is sequestered. Drainage of peatlands for conversion to plantations could also contribute significantly to greenhouse gas emissions, as further detailed below.

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Figure 5. Global distribution of oil palm and potential conflicts with biodiversity: (a) areas of high terrestrial vertebrate endemism; (b) global distribution of oil palm cultivation; (c) agriculturally suitable areas for oil palm (with and without forest); and (d) oil palm area in Southeast Asia. Source: Fitzherbert and others 2008 Social impacts
The worldwide market for palm oil is driving land acquisition in the form of large blocks of land, frequently linked with problems related to tenure systems and land-use rights, resulting in the exploitation of local communities and frequent abuse of human rights (FPP 2011; Colchester 2010). Palm oil seed cultivation and harvesting are predominantly performed by manual labour, creating one job for every 2.3 ha. A major challenge is to implement regulations and procedures to address problems such as the inequalities between small-scale, often informal producers, and large trans-national oil palm enterprises (Colchester 2010).

Socio-economic benefits of a sustainable oil palm plantation could include poverty alleviation and long-term employment opportunities. Profit sharing may provide a further incentive, attracting more workers to the palm oil sector, along with better living and working conditions (Albán and Cárdenas 2007). Depending on the role played by authorities and smallholder cooperatives, smallholders may benefit substantially from oil palm production in Indonesia due to its higher returns to land and labour, compared to other commonly grown agricultural products (Rist and others 2010). For instance, oil palm might be an alternative for farmers to invest in and benefit from the higher returns they offer, instead of destroying forest for cattle pasture (Butler 2011a).
Status in Southeast Asia
According to UN reports, the establishment of oil palm plantations caused widespread forest destruction in Indonesia and Malaysia (UNEP and UNESCO 2007) where the vast majority of the world's plantations are located. It is estimated that between 1990 and 2005, 55-60 per cent of oil palm expansion in the two countries occurred at the expense of virgin tropical forests (Koh and Wilcove 2008b; WWF 2011a). By the early 2000s, 8.3 million ha of closed canopy oil-palm plantations were established in peninsular Malaysia. One-tenth of that surface was established on peatlands (880 thousand ha or 6 per cent of total peatland area) (Figures 6 and 7). The peat swamp clearance resulted in the loss of approximately 4.6 million grams (Mg) of carbon from peat oxidation. The loss of peat swamp forests implies the loss of carbon sequestration service through peat accumulation, which amounts to approximately 660 000 Mg of carbon annually (Koh and others 2011). By 2010, 2.3 million ha of peat swamp forests were clear-felled, and currently occur as degraded lands (Koh and others 2011).

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Figure 6. Distribution of closed canopy oil palm plantations and tropical peatlands in the lowlands of Peninsular Malaysia, Borneo and Sumatra (PM - Peninsular Malaysia; SW - Sarawak; SB - Sabah; WK - West Kalimantan; CK - Central Kalimantan; SK - South Kalimantan; EK - East Kalimantan; AC - Aceh; NS - North Sumatra; RI - Riaus; WS - West Sumatra; JB - Jambi; BK - Bengkulu; SS - South Sumatra; LO - Lampung). Source: Koh and others 2011
In addition to the loss of forest ecosystems, oil palm cultivation has also been accompanied by massive fires (especially during 1997/1998), many of them started during land clearance and land preparation (IPOC/WWF 2004). Such fires cause health problems for the human population and threaten biodiversity, including wildlife such as Asian elephants, Sumatran rhinos and Sumatran tigers, which are currently facing extinction (WWF 2002). The survival of the orangutan in Southeast Asia is also of concern, as it faces grave threats to its habitat including deforestation for oil palm development (UNEP and UNESCO 2007).

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The example of the Brazilian Amazon Brazil as a key country in the region
There are concerns that the expansion of oil palm cultivation could lead to deforestation in the Amazon region, given the history of oil palm expansion in Southeast Asia (Butler 2011a). The Amazon contains about 40 per cent of the world's remaining tropical forest along with its biodiversity and ecosystem services (Figure 8). Brazil has 29 million ha of land suitable for oil palm cultivation in the Amazon and 2.8 million ha outside of this region (Embrapa 2010). Particularly in the Brazilian Amazon, more carbon is stored in trees than in any other country (47.9 billion tonnes in 3.3 million square kilometres) (Nepstad and others 2009). Biofuel production plays an important role in Brazil's political objectives and economic development strategy, making its forest potentially more vulnerable (Laurance and others 2010).

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Figure 8. Forest suitable for oil palms per country. Source: * Forest suitable for oil palms (Sickler and others 2007) ** Total forest (FAO 2010).
Potential expansion of plantations
Brazil currently produces 0.5 per cent of palm oil globally and envisions a 35 per cent expansion of sustainable oil palm production (Embrapa 2010). The Brazilian Government has been promoting oil palm plantations under the Program for Sustainable Production of Palm Oil since 2010, which seeks to limit expansion of oil palm cultivation to degraded land only. The current Brazilian administration is also expected to keep a commitment made at the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen to reduce deforestation by 80 per cent by 2020 (Tollefson 2011; Regalado 2011).

In May 2011, the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies approved a Forest Law Reform along with proposed changes that might support agribusiness, risking an increase in deforestation rates (WWF 2011b). The reform offers amnesty from penalties for illegal cuts (up to 400 ha) made prior to July 2008 to small landholders in the Amazon. It also modifies the rule requiring them to keep a minimum of 80 per cent forest cover and allows the use of previously barred zones such as hilltops and slopes, and includes reducing the amount of forest that must be preserved along the banks of streams and rivers.

Significant expansion of oil palm plantations is envisaged for the state of Pará, in the north of Brazil, by 2014. Figure 9 shows established plantations and recently cleared forest area or young plantations in Mojû, a municipality of Pará.

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Figure 9. Satellite image showing oil palm plantations in Mojû, Brazil. Source: Landsat 5 TM 2009 Towards sustainability Determining factors
The environmental impacts of palm oil production and use can be assessed from a life-cycle point of view. This means carrying out a holistic perspective in which emissions are taken into account, from the raw material extraction to the recycling or disposal stages. Impacts depend greatly on the land-use change conditions, the consumption of conventional fuels, fertilizers, pesticides and the wastes generated (Menichetti and Otto 2008).

The environmental sustainability of palm oil-based biodiesel production is determined by four factors: (1) land-use change; (2) soil quality; (3) biodiversity and (4) water quality impacts (Stichnothe and Schuchardt, 2011). Land-use conversion from forest to oil palm is perhaps the most important criterion when evaluating environmental sustainability with respect to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Degraded agricultural lands contribute to biodiversity loss, increased soil erosion, nutrient loss and GHG emissions. Notably, biodiesel from palm oil that is used as a low-carbon alternative to gasoline often contributes far more GHG emissions to the atmosphere than it is replacing when the plantations producing the palm oil were established by deforestation (Menichetti and Otto 2009; World Bank 2010).
Sustainability programmes and strategies
One safeguard to protect vulnerable communities from land tenure abuses has been the use of sustainable certification systems (RSPO 2007). Entities worldwide including the European Commission and the World Bank are supporting the use and production of sustainable biofuels authorized by certification bodies such as the Roundtable of Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) (FPP 2011; Mitchell 2011; Laurance and others 2010). The RSPO is currently the most broadly recognized framework reference for sustainability in oil palm and defines standards for plantations, including environmental and socio-economic aspects.

Other sustainability strategies include the REDD+ programme (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) and the POTICO (Palm Oil, Timber, Carbon Offset) project. The REDD+ is an instrument that creates a financial value for the carbon stored in forests, offering incentives for developing countries to reduce emissions from forested lands and invest in low-carbon paths to sustainable development. Under the POTICO project, firms agree to restrict sustainable oil palm expansion to already degraded lands (WRI 2011b).

Mapping and monitoring, supported by an appropriate regulatory framework are necessary to achieve sustainable management of oil palm production. Analysis of spatial data, including from remote sensing, is a key tool to improve monitoring of legal and sustainable plantations, especially when there are difficulties to access some areas.

It is necessary to protect the remaining tropical forests by designing new strategies that connect forest carbon and biofuel markets in order to reduce GHG emissions, conserve biodiversity and promote economic growth in developing countries.
Acknowledgements
Written by: Lorena Segura Moran a
Reviewed by: Ron Witt a
UNEP/GRID-Geneva a
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Oil palm plantations: threats and opportunities for tropical ecosystems

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An international commodity used for food, household and industrial purposes, oil palm is cultivated on approximately 15 million ha worldwide. As global demand for palm oil is expected to double by 2020, researchers have broadly studied the varying environmental threats arising from increased oil palm production.