If you are looking for a non-candidate diary, this is for you.
I am finishing up my degree in Geography this semester and have decided to share some of the research I have done over the past few years. Today I will address the topic of rain forest destruction and the boom in oil palm production in Southeast Asia, a process that has serious ramifications for biodiversity, climate change, and the food shortages currently taking place in the developing world.
The production of palm oil is one of the most ecologically destructive practices on the planet. Before it is processed and distributed to countries around the world, palm oil originates in tropical regions, where land is converted from rain forests to monoculture plantations. These industrial plantations, which harbor little of the biodiversity of the ecosystems that they replace, are the result of rural development policies instituted at a variety of scales, from the local to the international level. Supported by strong financial interests within both core and peripheral regions of the global economic system, these plantations having been exploding in number and extent since the mid-1960's, with devastating ecological consequences. The rapid rise of oil palm, its increasing importance in meeting the cooking needs of the developing world, and the variety of other commercial and industrial uses to which the tree is put merits further investigation. It is therefore worth examining how the process of ecological transition plays out from start to finish, with the goal of shedding light on a common, if often overlooked, component of the human diet for billions of people around the world.
Several facts are worth stating at the outset in order to provide context to the importance of palm oil as an agricultural commodity. First, palm oil accounted for 49% of world trade in vegetable oils as of 2003 (FAO, 2006). It is second only to soybean oil as a foodstuff and just passed soybean oil to become the most commonly produced vegetable oil in the world (FAO, 2006). It is also relatively inexpensive to grow, producing yields three to twenty times greater than other oil crops (FWI/GFW, 2002; FAO, 2006).
The expansion of the palm oil industry has been phenomenal; since the mid-1960's, production has grown 3600% in Indonesia alone (FWI/GFW, 2002). In Malaysia, the amount of cultivated land used for palm oil production rose from 54,638 hectares in 1960 to 3,376,664 hectares in 2000, a 61-fold increase (WWF, 2002). Malaysia and Indonesia today account for 81% of world palm oil production (Basiron, 2002).
From an economic perspective, these statistics and growth rates are astounding. When one considers the ecological consequences, however, the analysis is more sobering. Behind the rosy numbers lies a destructive pattern of large-scale land conversion. Tropical rain forests in Malaysia and Indonesia have undergone unprecedented and permanent changes as a result of degradation and deforestation. Rates of deforestation in Indonesia have been so severe that it is believed that only remnant patches of tropical lowland rain forest still exist in Sumatra today (FWI/GFW, 2002). In Kalimantan, the region of Borneo that falls under Indonesian jurisdiction, most tropical lowland rain forest will cease to exist by 2010 if current rates of deforestation continue unabated (FWI/GFW, 2002).
Implicit in these changes is the loss of critical habitat for flora and fauna in a region that is home to some of the planet's most impressive biodiversity and the outright extinction of several species of large animals (CSPI, 2005). Several large species at high risk are the Sumatran tiger, both the Sumatran and Bornean orangutans, and the Asian elephant. Harvard biologist E. O. Wilson referred bleakly to the Sumatran rhinoceros as belonging to the "Hundred Heartbeats Club," a species whose living population currently numbers less than 100 individuals (Wilson, 2002). These charismatic megafauna are very often the focus of international conservation groups, but countless other unique lifeforms of intrinsic value are endangered or already extinct as the result of rain forest conversion to palm oil plantations.
Physical changes in the non-human environment often accompany the severe effects of palm oil plantations on biodiversity. Closed canopy forests regulate heat, moisture, and wind regimes, creating local microclimates. When forests are degraded or deforested, increased sunlight, dryness, and wind create conditions that lead to a gradual recession of the remaining forest edge (Gascon, Williamson, and da Fonseco, 2000.)
On a regional level, large-scale deforestation can result in decreased evapotranspiration, reducing cloud formation and rainfall. In Southeast Asia, Epstein (2002), notes that global warming may be a contributor to the increased frequency, duration, and intensity of El Niños since 1976. Since rain forest conversion to palm oil plantations is normally followed by the use of fire to release nutrients into the soil, carbon dioxide emissions from recurring fires on Sumatra and Borneo are themselves a major contributor to global climate change (Aiken, 2005).
Oil palm agriculture has important implications for water quality as well. Sedimentation from soil erosion can degrade drinking water and destroy aquatic ecosystems. Inputs of petrochemical herbicides, insecticides, and fertilizers often pollute local waterways in areas that have already been converted to industrial plantation agriculture. Additionally, effluent from industrial wastewater creates massive amounts of untreated sewage. In 1999 alone, palm oil mill effluent in Indonesia produced the equivalent of the amount of domestic sewage generated by 20 million people (CSPI, 2005).
Land conversion from rain forest to industrial monoculture plantations typically begins when logging concessions are granted to timber companies, often as a result of pervasive corruption or nepotism at the national level. The Suharto regime in Indonesia was particularly infamous for awarding such concessions to its political favorites (FWI/GFW, 2002). Logging companies then take advantage of the immensely profitable practice of harvesting tropical timber, extracting high-value trees and sending them to sawmills and eventually overseas to export markets. In some cases, particularly in Indonesia, where decentralization following the Suharto era led to less government intervention in hinterland areas, illegal logging networks have been formed at the local level with the tacit approval of provincial governors (McCarthy, 2002).
Once the forest has been cleared, the remaining brush and detritus are normally burned to release nutrients into the soil. The land is then surveyed, and leguminous cover crops are planted to encourage nitrogen fixation in the soil and prevent erosion (WWF, 2002). The final step in the establishment of monoculture plantations involves transplanting year-old oil palm clones or seedlings from nurseries in neat rows that often stretch as far as the eye can see (WWF, 2002).
A two to three year process of field maintenance then takes place before the newly planted oil palm trees become productive and begin to yield fruit. This maintenance involves weeding, pruning, and the application of fertilizers and various forms of pest control (WWF, 2002). The oil palm industry uses over 20 different kinds of herbicides and pesticides, including the herbicide paraquat dichloride, which has been found to be responsible for nosebleeds, nail loss, and abdominal ulcerations amongst female plantation workers in Malaysia (CSPI, 2005).
Harvesting of fresh fruit bunches is accomplished with the aid of hand chisels when the trees are young, and later occurs with the help of mounted sickles when the trees are older and the fruit is out of reach (WWF, 2002). Tractors with mounted arms then go around collecting the fruit bunches, transporting them in wagons to processing plants on the plantations, where they are turned into palm oil and a variety of other commercially significant products (WWF, 2002). These include fatty acids used in the making of soaps, fragrances, cosmetics, and candles, fatty alcohols used to make washing and cleaning products, fatty nitrogen compounds used to prevent rust, and glycerols used in lubricants, stabilizers, solvents, and other industrial applications (WWF, 2002).
Palm oil today is used in a number of food products, including shortenings, margarines, ice cream, cookies, crackers, biscuits, cake mixes, icing, dough fat, and instant noodles (WWF, 2002). Almost all large transnational food conglomerates use palm oil as an additive for their products; examples of well-known foods containing palm oil include Cadbury chocolate, Oreo cookies, Kraft Vegetable Thins, and Pilsbury dough. When occidental consumers buy these products, they unknowingly participate in the destruction of tropical rain forests.
One of the reasons that palm oil is so widely used is that it is inexpensive relative to other vegetable oils. Since 1986, palm oil has been consistently cheaper than peanut, soybean, canola, sunflower, and rapeseed oils (FAO, 2006). Its cheap price makes it affordable to consumers in the developing world, particularly in India, Pakistan, and China (USDA, 2002). This is an important fact to consider when thinking about the process of ecological destruction that accompanies palm oil production.
The role that various national and transnational corporations play in fueling the oil palm boom cannot be overstated. In both Malaysia and Indonesia, the very same conglomerates that are granted logging concessions often own the saw mills that process the tropical timber, the trading companies that export the value-added sawn wood, and the subsidiaries in charge of establishing plantations, processing oil palm, and exporting its derivative products (FWI/GFW, 2002). These conglomerates thus profit in numerous ways from the conversion of rain forests to monoculture plantations. A financial incentive exists at each step of the process, from the initial clearing of the rain forest to the eventual export of palm oil and other oil palm products.
The role that Dutch banks have played in financing these operations has drawn increased scrutiny in recent years as groups concerned with the ongoing cycle of destruction have investigated the complicity of Western business interests in supporting tropical land conversion in Southeast Asia. ING Bank, ABN AMRO Bank, Rabobank, MeesPierson, and Nederlandse FMO are five major lenders who have provided equity and insurance to Malaysian and Indonesian companies with oil palm holdings (Greenpeace, 2000). It is therefore worthwhile to keep in mind that foreign banks are at least in part responsible for the deforestation that has resulted from the establishment of oil palm plantations, in addition to the conglomerates themselves and consumers in both the developing and industrialized world.
Global palm oil production, concentrated largely in Malaysia and Indonesia, has increased at an explosive pace since the 1960's due to the large-scale conversion of tropical rain forests into industrial plantations practicing intensive monoculture. Devastating ecological consequences have accompanied this transition. The loss of critical habitat for many forms of life in a region known for the splendor of its biodiversity, the release of massive amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as a result of forest clearance, and severe water pollution from pesticides and effluent originating from palm oil plantations have resulted from an insatiable thirst for profits, the high demand for cooking oil in the developing world, and the use of cheap additives in goods manufactured by transnational food conglomerates. Billions of people on the planet consume foods made with palm oil today, most of them unaware of the destructive practices of timber concessionaires who, aided by Western financiers, profit at every stage of the land conversion process. Ultimately, almost everyone bears some responsibility for the continuing destruction of rain forests to create palm oil. It will be important to heighten awareness of this complex issue moving into the future if further destruction of these irreplaceable ecosystems is to be averted.