Palm oil: sustainability, like charity, begins at home

David Logan argues that palm oil is here to stay, whatever the campaigners say. So we should focus on what must be done – at home and abroad – to make it sustainable.

As large areas of Britain and Western Europe go bright yellow with the flowers of oilseed rape this spring, it is worth remembering that it yields on average about 0.7 tons of oil per hectare, compared with about 3.5 tons per hectare as an average for the palm oil industry (leading commercial producers are getting more like 5.4 tons per hectare). Originating in Africa, the palm tree was introduced to Asia by the British and Dutch colonial powers. It is now the world’s largest single source of edible oil, and its use is growing more rapidly than all other types of vegetable oils.

Oil and fat consumption per capita in Indonesia and China is less than half that of the EU and USA, and in India it is less than a quarter, but the gap is narrowing. While there are many uses for palm oil, such as in soap and detergents, cosmetics, explosives and bio-diesel, it is primarily a foodstuff used in margarine, ice cream and baking. In Asia it is widely used as cooking oil for frying food. Developing countries in Asia and increasingly Africa are delighted to have such a useful agricultural product, which can provide good livelihoods for poor farmers, meet a local food demand and generate exporting earnings.

The problem with the palm oil tree is that it needs a rainfall similar to that of any tropical forest and consequently is a key factor in deforestation. A battle is on to create a framework for its sustainable development; one which not only promotes the conservation of forests and biodiversity but economic and social justice too. NGOs like Greenpeace and WWF have played leading roles in raising awareness of the issues and governments like Norway’s, with its commitment of US$1 billion to help Indonesia conserve its forests, are stepping up to the plate.

Western companies such as Unilever and Nestlé have committed to buying only sustainable palm oil and Indonesian companies like Golden Agri-Resources have responded by working with the multi-stakeholder Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and the Forest Trust to make sustainable production work on the ground.  Palm oil is here to stay – it is just too useful a product – but much more must be done to make it sustainable. In Asia, for example, we need to promote sustainable consumption, and collect all that used cooking oil which currently ends up in sewers and ditches to turn into biodiesel. In the West do we need to stop planting oilseed rape and plant trees instead? Having cleared our native forests in the pursuit of prosperity, we need to show developing countries that preserving forests is not just their problem – we have to cherish trees too.