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Environmentally Friendly Palm Oil; Key Paper |
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Written by Shane Woods
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 Palm oil is the world’s number one fruit crop, trouncing its nearest competitor, the humble banana? Why is this so?
Says Rhett A. Butler: “The answer lies in the crop’s unparalleled productivity. Simply put, oil palm is the most productive oil seed in the world. A single hectare of oil palm may yield 5,000 kilograms of crude oil, or nearly 6,000 liters of crude according to data from JourneytoForever. For comparison, soybeans and corn—crops often heralded as top biofuel sources—generate only 446 and 172 liters per hectare, respectively.”
Proving to be a popular source of feedstock to make biofuel, the crop is also used for a myriad of purposes from an ingredient in food products to engine lubricants to a base for cosmetics. “Palm oil is becoming an increasingly important agricultural product for tropical countries around the world, especially as crude oil prices top $70 a barrel,” Butler points out.
Many green groups, such as the Friends of the Earth have joined a frenzied movement to call for the stopping of the growth of palm oil plantations on the grounds of it causing deforestation. In response sites like the Palm Oil Truth Foundation have sprung up jumping to the crop’s defense.
In our view, this doesn't have to be the case. As Butler rightly points out: “Following examples set forth by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil and firms like Golden Hope Plantations Berhad, a Malaysian palm-oil producer, oil palm can be cultivated in a manner that helps mitigate climate change, preserves biodiversity, and brings economic opportunities to desperately poor rural populations.”
Oil palm plantations should be encouraged on existing agricultural lands and areas that have been severely degraded and deforested. We have to give credit where credit is due and so it is certainly heartening to note that plantations such as Golden Hope and many others in Malaysia are currently practicing this.
Every year, round about July/August a choking haze envelopes large parts of SE Asia, largely the result of peatland and forest fires. Very often, clearing of land by the slash and burn methods long practiced in large parts of Indonesia and Borneo have aggravated the situation. In this regard, Golden Hope’s “zero burning policy” is to be commended. Instead of slashing and burning, Golden Hope carefully cuts and shreds old palm oil stumps and allows them to rot and decompose. This enriches and makes the soil more fertile, reducing both greenhouse gasses and the need for potentially polluting chemical fertilizers. Additional, this method is a no-brainer as it results in huge cost savings, as land clearing is more efficient and cheaper.
Golden Hope deals with pests and pathogens by using biological controls such as birds, owls, bats, cobras, beetles, and fungi rather than toxic chemicals to deal with common palm oil pathogens.
Effluents from palm oil mills are treated with anaerobic bacteria and used as a substitute for inorganic fertilizer rather than discharge the waste into the local waterways, thus cutting the risk of polluting the waterways.
In the view of Deforestation Watch such practices are evidence aplenty that Palm Oil plantations and environmental groups, rather than going on a collision course, can work together to ensure that the crop is cultivated using sustainable practices! THE END. |
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