Ben Keningale on oil and orangutans
Palm oil seems to be one of the most controversial cooking products around, whether it's the health implications of its sky-high fat content, the environmental concerns of cultivating the crop on rainforest land, or the whole biofuel minefield, there's a lot to say about it, and the chances are you'll already have ingested quite a lot of this 'vegetable oil' this week. Here's Ben's take on it.
Globally, palm oil is now the most widely produced edible oil, having surpassed Soybean as the cooking oil of choice. Used in literally hundreds of thousands of products, it can be found in almost one in ten products in your local supermarket. It’s cheap, extremely easy to grow and very versatile. In addition, non-edible palm oil, derived from the same source, is leading the way in a new generation in bio-fuels – cleaner fuels that produce far less carbon than their fossil based cousins.
These qualities are only part of its appeal. Due to the increasing demand from European (read rich and developed) nations, Asian governments are dishing out huge numbers of permits and grants to cultivate palm trees for oil production. Thousands of jobs have been created, boosting flagging economies, while vast tracts of otherwise useless land have been utilized for the growth of these hardy trees.
Isn’t that great? An economically sound crop that provides jobs, could be used to combat carbon emissions and can be grown anywhere, even land that has been nutritionally drained from over grazing.
But it’s the last factor that’s the killer. It isn’t always grown anywhere. Those permits that Asian governments, particularly the Malaysian and Indonesian administrations, so love to indiscriminately hand out are creating a sub-market in the long-contended South East Asian logging industry. Palm tree cultivators are legally entitled to log thousands of acres of rainforest for plantations.
The resulting “waste” wood is then sold - at a huge profit – to the same rich, developed nations. Less reputable companies have vied for plantation permits, only to log massive areas of rainforest, selling the timber and disappearing, leaving the stripped land undeveloped. It would be almost too obvious to suggest that this is having an adverse affect on the already fragile tropical ecology
No more keenly is this felt than in Borneo, an island split between Indonesia and Malaysia, and containing the sultanate of Brunei. It is rich in biodiversity, providing a habitat for many indigenous species particular to Borneo. It is these unfortunate creatures that are feeling the full force of palm oil cultivation.
In particular, the Orangutan is one of the most critically threatened animals in Borneo, with 30,000 individuals existing globally. Bear in mind that number was taken from a survey made in 1999. The number now could be as low as 15,000.
The loss of habitat is primarily responsible for devastating their population, as Orangutans require trees suitable for building nests in. Palm trees simply do not meet those requirements. But there is another reason for the accelerated depletion in Orangutan numbers.
Despite their sedate nature, Orangutans are considered a pest by plantation owners, who offer their workers incentives to capture or kill any Orangutans discovered making a “nuisance”. Every year, thousands are shot, clubbed to death, set on fire, decapitated, tortured and, at best, chained up as pets.
It has been estimated that if the situation continues like this, Orangutans will be extinct within the next 10 years. And this is only one species. Other animals under severe threat include the Gibbon, Jungle Elephants and the Sumatran Tiger amongst many, many others.
So what do we do? Boycott all products containing Palm Oil? Both impractical and potentially damaging, says Friends of the Earth. By law, food companies and supermarkets do not have to specifically list palm oil in the ingredients of its products, often simply noting it as “vegetable oil”. Even if it was disclosed, refusing to buy foods containing palm oil would be damaging to an industry which is creating jobs and supporting hundreds of thousands of people in impoverished nations.
Nice post Ben. You and your readers may find something of interest here. With the E.U. legislating biofuel quotas for member states, and Bush reaching into Brazil's pockets, the public needs to be aware of the implications.
Posted by: Craig Mackintosh | March 28, 2007 6:48 PM