Palm Oil Cultivation and It's effects on climate change.

Collected Palm Oil Fruits Before Processing

Found in thousands of products, from peanut butter and packaged bread to shampoo and shaving cream, palm oil is a booming multibillion-dollar industry. While it isn't always labeled in supermarket staples, there are unintended consequences of producing this ubiquitous ingredient.

Indonesia and Malaysia together account for nearly 85% of global palm oil production. This oil is commonly used in processed foods, cosmetics and bio-fuels, and while it is inexpensive, the environmental and social costs are high. Each year, thousands of hectares of rainforest disappear in order to meet the growing demand for the oil worldwide. In 2012, Indonesia had the highest deforestation rate in the world, according to a study published in 2014 in Nature Climate Change.

Palm oil cultivation causes greenhouse gas emissions. Deforestation in tropical areas accounts for an estimated 10 percent of man-made carbon dioxide emissions, and is a driver toward dangerous climate change. Converting rainforest land into oil palm plantations leads to the most important carbon emissions: one hectare of converted land equates to a loss of 174 tons of carbon, and most of this carbon will find its way into the air as carbon dioxide.

Indonesia contains the world’s third largest tropical forest.  Destruction of over 80% of Indonesia’s rainforests and peatlands give it the dubious distinction of being the world’s third largest emitter of greenhouse gases and the world leader in deforestation. Despite a moratorium on new logging placed in effect, deforestation in Indonesia has continued unabated.

Deforestation damages ecosystems and biodiversity because habitats are destroyed and wildlife displaced.  Risk of flooding, drought, landslides, and wildfires are higher in oil palm plantation areas than in intact forests. Deforestation also has a devastating human impact.  Kalangala Island for example is home to multiple indigenous ethnicities and cultures that have existed for many years. When their lands are destroyed, they are forced to relocate. And because indigenous people rely on access to the forest for basic survival, livelihoods are destroyed and their way of life is permanently altered. Additionally, according to a 2008 report by NGOs, palm oil companies have also reportedly used force to acquire land from indigenous communities in Indonesia and Uganda (Kalangala Islands to be specific) leading to the destruction of their traditional heritages and sites. Some of these oil palm plantations are dependent on imported labor or undocumented immigrants, which has raised concerns about the working conditions and social impacts of these practices.

Palm oil cultivation also leads to the loss of peat soils that store enormous amounts of carbon. Peat soils are formed from partially decomposed plant material under anaerobic water saturated conditions. They are found in peatlands (also called bogs), which covers about 3% of the earth’s land mass.

While forests are huge storehouses for carbon, the peat soils on which some of them grow can contain even more carbon as much as 18 to 28 times that of the forests themselves. Because peat soils are found in swampy areas with a high water table, the leaves and woody materials that fall from the trees to the forest floor do not fully decompose; they accumulate, storing carbon as a result. Over time, these soils build to a depth ranging from 1 foot (0.3 meter) to around 65 feet (20 meters) As natural carbon sinks that keep carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, intact peatlands are vital to the reduction of global warming. Southeast Asia, and especially Indonesia, is rich in tropical peat soils; these soils contain some three quarters of the world’s tropical peat-soil carbon an amount comparable to the carbon stored in the above-ground vegetation of the Amazon forest. If all of this peat-stored carbon were released into the atmosphere, it would be equivalent to the carbon emissions from about nine years of global fossil fuel use. Unfortunately, palm oil companies are increasingly destroying the swamps in order to make way for plantations even though the growing conditions on peat are far from ideal.

To plant oil palm trees, it is first necessary to drain water from the soil, an expensive process that needs to be continually repeated during the crop cycle. This drainage makes the peat decompose (causing heat-trapping emissions that often continue for decades) and then compact, thereby lowering the level of the land and making it even with the water table again, which prompts another drainage cycle. Further, peat soil is often too acidic to grow oil palm without additional chemical inputs, and oil palm trees planted on peat have a high rate of disease. Drainage finally drastically increases the peat’s susceptibility to fire.

Apart from greenhouse gas emission, and susceptibility of the peats to fire causing forest lose, peatland disturbance brings a number of other changes, for example, drainage of peatland causes decline in biodiversity because its natural hydrological habitat is disturbed. Peatlands provide habitation for diverse species of meadow birds, animals, vegetation and insects.

 Rain forests and peatland ecosystems store billions of tons of carbon and methane gases. Their destruction therefore releases vast amounts of greenhouse gases, resulting in significant impacts on global climate.

As we all know, according to Zion Market Research, global palm oil market was valued at 65.73 billion in 2015; it is expected to reach 92.84 billion in 2021 and is anticipated to grow 7.2% between 2016 and 2021. Such heady profits make palm oil plantations irresistible. However, irresponsible an unsustainable palm cultivation that contribute to climate change and wreck the environment is not necessary and should be stopped. Palm growing companies should divert to sustainable options of palm cultivation to mitigate climate change. Also, there should be regulations to stop deforestation for palm cultivation purposes, and certification schemes should expressly specify that no rain forest areas or areas of high conservation value should be cleared to make way for new palm plantation, mills and farms should equally reduce their environmental impacts to the very minimum.