Palm Oil’s Role in Deforestation and Climate Change
Scientists estimate around 15-17% of annual carbon emissions – more than the emissions produced from all the cars, buses, trains and airplanes in the world - are caused by destruction of forests, especially in tropical areas.1,2
Palm oil production has become one of the world’s leading causes of rainforest destruction.3 It has been identified by scientists as “the greatest immediate threat to biodiversity in SE Asia.”4
In Indonesia, the area covered by palm oil plantations has grown by 600% since 1990, covering an area the size of Maine.5
Expansion continues and is accelerating: In Indonesia it has risen from a growth rate of 1.2 million acres per year over the last ten years to nearly 1.6 million acres per year between 2011–2013.6
Palm oil production has become one of the world’s leading causes of rainforest destruction.3 It has been identified by scientists as “the greatest immediate threat to biodiversity in SE Asia.”4
In Indonesia, the area covered by palm oil plantations has grown by 600% since 1990, covering an area the size of Maine.5
Expansion continues and is accelerating: In Indonesia it has risen from a growth rate of 1.2 million acres per year over the last ten years to nearly 1.6 million acres per year between 2011–2013.6
- The Indonesian government has announced plans to more than double the size of palm oil plantations to an area the size of the state of Missouri.
- Palm oil plantations are one reason why Indonesia is one of the most critically threatened rainforest regions in the world today.7,8,9
What is Palm Oil's Impact on the Climate and What
Can Southeast Asia Do About it?
Palm Oil's Climate Impact Worse Than Thought Due to Methane Emissions
'Methane leaks from palm oil wastewater significantly increases the climate impact of palm oil production beyond emissions from land clearance, fire, and peatlands drainage, reports a new study published in Nature Climate Change. The research, led by Philip. G. Taylor of the University of Colorado, finds that annual methane emissions from palm oil wastewater effluent amount to the equivalent of 115 million tons carbon dioxide in Malaysia and Indonesia alone, or roughly 15 percent of total emissions from peat oxidation and land use change in the two countries. "
Palm Oil Plantation Expansion is Spreading Across the World
- In Madagascar, burning for agricultural land is leading to 100,000 hectares (386 square miles) of forest being lost each year.10
- About 2/3 of the 284 million acres of rainforests in the Congo basin is considered suitable for palm oil plantations. Industrial palm oil plantation expansion is actively underway in the Congo to develop 1.2 million acres (an area nearly the size of Delaware).11
- Large concessions totaling more than 2.5 million acres are being bought in Liberia, Cameroon, and Uganda.12
- Brazil alone has 72 million acres of rainforest land suitable for palm oil cultivation in the Amazon.13
Sources:
1. http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2013/08/12/its-not-all-bad-americans-and-palm-oil/
2. http://www.wcs.org/press/press-releases/makira-carbon-sale.aspx
3. Wilcove, David S., and lian Pin Koh. “Addressing the Threats to Biodiversity from Oil-Palm Agriculture.” Biodiversity and Conservation 19 no. 4 (April 2010): 985–997. Accessed August 9, 2013. doi: 10.1007/s10531-010-9779-z.
4. Carlson, Kimberly M., Lisa M. Curran, Dessy Ratnasari et. al. “Committed Carbon Emissions, Deforestation, and Community Land Conversion from Oil Palm Plantation Expansion in West Kalimantan, Indonesia.” Pnas (April 20, 2012). Accessed august 9, 2013. doi:10.1073/pnas.1200452109.
5. USDA Foreign Agricultural Service. “Indonesia: Palm Oil Expansion Unaffected by Forest Moratorium.” Commodity Intelligence Report, June 26, 2013. Accessed August 9, 2013. http://www.pecad.fas.usda.gov/highlights/2013/06/ indonesia/
6. The Rainforest Foundation UK. “Seeds of Destruction.” February 2013. Accessed August 9, 2013. http://www. rainforestfoundationuk.org/files/seeds%20of%20destruction,%20February%202013.pdf
7. Jakarta Post. “Indonesia Allocates 18 million Hectares of Land for Palm oil.” Jakarta Post, December 2, 2009. Accessed August 9, 2013.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/12/02/indonesia-allocates-18-million-hectares-land- palm-oil.html
8. Miettinen, Jukka, Al Hooijer, Daniel Tollenaar et. al. “Historical Analysis and Projection of Oil Palm Plantation Expansion on Peatland in Southeast Asia.” The International Council on Clean Transportation, February 22, 2012. Accessed August 9, 2013. http://www.theicct.org/ historical-analysis-and-projection-oil-palm-plantation-expansion-peatland-southeast-asia
9. Rainforest Action Network. “Indonesian Rainforests.” Accessed August 9, 2013. http://ran.org/indonesian-rainforests#ixzz2Kootllee
10. Boucher, Doug. “Deforestation Today: it’s Just business.” Union of Concerned Scientists, November 2010. Accessed August 9, 2013. http://www.ucsusa.org/assets/documents/global_warming/deforestation-today-it-s-Just-business.pdf
11. Hance, Jeremy. “Activists Warn of industrial Palm oil expansion in Congo rainforest.” mongabay.com, February 21, 2013. accessed august 9, 2013.
12. Greenpeace International. “Palm Oil’s New Frontier.” September 2012. Accessed august 9, 2013. http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/global/usa/planet3/PdFs/Forests/PalmoilsnewFrontier.pdf
13. UNEP. “Oil Palm Plantations: threats and opportunities for tropical ecosystems.” uneP global environmental alert service, december 2011. accessed august 9, 2013. http://na.unep.net/geas/getunePPageWitharticleidscript. php?article_id=73