Is your ice cream bad for elephants?
By Jamie Grant and Emma Duncan
Palm oil is a versatile product. You might not realise it, but it's present in a
wide range of goods at your local supermarket — from cosmetics and detergents
to a variety of food products, including confectionery, chocolate, ice cream,
ready-to-serve meals, and margarine.
It's also an extremely productive crop. Grown in tropical areas around the
world, from its native West Africa to Southeast Asia, Pacific regions, and Latin
America, oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) plantations produce far more oil
per hectare than any other oilseed. Oil palm also requires less fertiliser,
pesticide, and herbicide than other common oilseed crops, such as soybean,
sunflower, and rapeseed.
Small wonder then that oil palm has become a bumper crop in many developing
countries, providing income and employment in isolated areas where it's often
most needed. And with the world trade in palm oil predicted to double in the
next 20–30 years, the boom looks set to continue.
But despite the apparent environmental benefits of oil palm, the industry has
often been criticised by environmental organizations. The issues are complex and
differ in different countries, but often include problems associated with loss
of natural forest.
Indonesia is a case in point. Although prohibited by Indonesian law, a new WWF
report says that clearing of natural forest for plantations still continues
here. For economic reasons and due to poor governmental control, logging and
estate companies do not use widely available degraded lands for oil palm
plantations. Instead, they set fire to natural forests on their concessions
after having removed all the valuable timber, and then convert the cleared land
to plantations.
The fires themselves can lead to further forest loss. The horrendous fires
that swept through Indonesia in 1997 — burning down an area of rainforest
bigger than the Netherlands and sending up smoke that reached as far as Brunei,
Singapore, the Philippines, and Thailand — have been blamed on fires that were
deliberately lit to clear forest for oil palm and other crops and then got out
of hand because of a prolonged drought.
The extent and speed of forest loss in Indonesia is alarming. Fifty years
ago, the island of Sumatra was covered with millions of hectares of tropical
rainforest. Today, most of the lowland forest is gone, converted to settlements,
oil palm and pulpwood plantations, and other crops. With 2 million hectares of
lowland forest destroyed each year, the last remaining tracts will be lost by
2005. The same could happen on the island of Kalimantan by 2010.
The shrinking forest area threatens thousands of animal and plant species,
many of them endemic and already endangered. Sumatra's Tesso Nilo forest, for
example, has the highest level of lowland forest plant biodiversity known to
science, with over 4,000 plant species recorded so far. It's also home to three
per cent of the world's mammal species, including elephants, rhinos, tigers, and
orang-utangs.
Forest loss and oil palm plantations are proving a particularly deadly mix
for Sumatra's elephants. As their natural habitat disappears, the animals are
increasingly raiding oil palm plantations surrounding Tesso Nilo for food. But
an agonising death awaits them. Angry farmers coat the palm fronds with
pesticide or lay out poisoned bait. Earlier this year, 17 elephant corpses were
found in the vicinity of a plantation. An entire family wiped out, every one a
victim of poisoning. Tigers too are increasingly entering villages to find food,
where they are often killed.
With the area of oil palm plantations in Indonesia predicted to double to 6
million hectares by 2020 and logging — both legal and illegal — continuing
unabated, the outlook seems bleak for the country's remaining forests and the
animals that depend on them.
But it doesn't have to be. Many players in the international palm oil
industry could help save forests in Indonesia by implementing sound
environmental, social, and economic practices. WWF is actively promoting this,
and the results are promising.
Financial institutions are one target. The expansion of the oil palm sector
is largely funded by European, North American, and East Asian financial
institutions which, for the most part, rarely try to improve the social and
environmental practices of their clients. However, these institutions could
actively find and fund palm oil plantations that do not destroy natural forests.
In partnership with WWF, four of the biggest banks in the Netherlands — ABN
AMRO, Rababank, Fortis, and ING — have already agreed to stop or substantially
restrict financing for palm oil plantations in Indonesia on environmental and
social grounds.
Palm oil consumers also play a role in environmental responsibility. With
some 17 per cent of the 22 million tonnes of palm oil produced worldwide
destined for Europe, this market could significantly influence the industry's
practises.
Switzerland's largest retail chain, Migros, has already started to do this.
Also in partnership with WWF, the company developed a strict set of social and
environmental criteria to be met by their palm oil suppliers. For example, oil
palm plantations must not be grown on newly deforested land and must include
secure wildlife and forest corridors. Social concerns are also taken into
account to minimize conflict with local communities and ensure that workers'
basic pay and conditions are met. This year, margarine became one of the
retailer's first products made from palm oil that meets their new criteria. Step
by step, all other products sold by Migros that contain palm oil will follow
suit.
Palm oil producers too are realising the benefits of environmentally friendly
plantation practises. The powerful Malaysian Palm Oil Association (MPOA)
recently formed a Task Force to address environmental issues. Working with WWF,
the MPOA made a proposal for the development of better practices for palm oil
both at the landscape as well as the plantation level. Unilever, a major
worldwide consumer as well as a producer of palm oil, is also working with WWF
to develop sustainable palm oil production methods.
Our ice cream, soap, moisturiser, and lipstick — as well as products from
other tropical crops such as soy and pulp — should not come at the expense of
forests in Indonesia or other parts of the world. Although promising first steps
have been made towards a more environmentally friendly palm oil industry, there
is still a long way to go. Other companies and financial institutions need to
follow in the footsteps of Migros, Unilever, and the four Dutch banks, not only
in Europe but also in China, India, and Pakistan, the world's largest palm oil
importers. Consumers too must demand environmentally friendly palm oil products,
and if necessary be prepared to pay a higher price for these. Only then will the
destruction stop.
More Information:
Reproduced with permission from WWF.
© 2002 WWF-- World Wide Fund For Nature. (Formerly World Wildlife Fund). All
rights reserved.
*Jamie Grant is Press Officer at WWF Scotland and Emma Duncan is Managing
Editor at WWF International
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