Views on Palm Oil from the WWF and Greenpeace
The World Wildlife Fund envisions a palm oil market that is inclusive and based on environmentally sustainable and acceptable sourcing and processing (WWF 2017a, p.1). The global demand for and production of palm oil has increased rapidly, according to the WWF (2017, p.1), with plantations spreading across Asia, Latin America, and Africa. These expansions have come at the cost of the world's tropical forests, which provide critical habitat for a variety of endangered species as well as a lifeline for a diverse range of human populations (WWF 2017, p.1). Furthermore, according to the WWF (2013, p.1), there are more than 50 mills for palm oil that have capacities to produce over 14.5 million tons surround Tesso Nilo Forest Complex. WWF (2013, p.1) indicate that companies that purchase palm oils are required to question their suppliers about the supply chain of palm oil to ascertain their legality before buying. As such, WWF is against the illegal expansion of forests to accommodate the plantation of palm oil, which is later sold to the industries for money at the expense of conserving the environment. In this regard, WWF (2013) notes that illegal production of palm oil should be castigated to stop encroachment into the forest and privately owned lands without consent.
Greenpeace's Perspective
Greenpeace (2013) has depicted that the demands for palm oil production has grown unprecedentedly with most of it ending up in the foods such as chocolate, margarine, oven chips, and cheese as well as other things like cosmetics and biodiesel. Regardless of these benefits, Greenpeace (2013) ascertains that the environment and global costs arising from palm oil production are devastating. For instance, to meet the demands for palm oil, peatlands and tropical rainforests are torn to free land for growing palm. In so doing, the world’s biodiversity is under threat while there is augmented production of greenhouse gases that negatively impact the climate; for example, Greenpeace (2013) has categorically denoted that production of palm oil spells disaster for climate change, local communities, and biodiversity. Greenpeace (2013) states that governments should establish explicit rules to guide palm production while avoiding deforestation and devastating effects to the climate.
Alternatives and Problems of Palm Oil
In the past decades, palm oil has been recognized as an important edible ingredient across the world (Hinrichsen, 2016). Accordingly, palm oil is vital since it was established as a replacement to partially hydrogenated oils, which contain trans-fatty acids that are unhealthy. In essence, some countries have determined legal limits for trans-fatty acid levels in the human foods and have long been replaced by palm kernel or palm oil. Nonetheless, palm oil is under discussion due to accentuated saturated fatty acid levels when compare to liquid oils including sunflower and rapeseed (Hinrichsen, 2016). Several alternatives exist that could be used to replace palm oil including hydrogenated fats, exotic fats, and liquid oils (Hinrichsen, 2016, p.1).
Partially hydrogenate fats o not offer probable replacements to palm oil; however, fully hydrogenate fats can potentially be used (Hinrichsen, 2016, p.1). During hydrogenation, fully hydrogenated fats have increased solid fat contents that result in unpleasant sensory experiences. Similarly, exotic fats like illipe sal, kokum, shea, and mango seed are not available in sufficient quantities. In essence, these alternatives have increased levels of symmetrical triglycerides demanding for specialized tempering to ensure crystallization to produce stable forms. Alternatives such as shea are not utilized until after fractionation (Hinrichsen, 2016, p.1). Further, non-hydro and non-palm oils such as cocoa butter, shea, and other several exotic fats are produced from expensive raw materials and crop at intervals that are irregular (Hinrichsen, 2016, p.1). Further, Hinrichsen (2016, p.1) ascertains that liquid oils such as sunflower, rapeseed oil, and soy bean oil can be used to replace palm oil; however, because of their aggregate liquid state, they do not replace all palm fractions.
Sustainable Palm Oil
Several initiatives have been in place to align the production of palm oil towards the sustainable development principles (Ernah and Waibel 2016, p.292). The principles of sustainable development prescribe regulations that should be adhered to in land usage cognizant of palm oil production in line with human and ecological conditions such as environmental standards. These standards encompass adherence to crop management aimed at increasing productivity while minimizing negative externalities regarding human health and the environment (Ernah and Waibel 2016, p.292). In this regard, Unilever (2016) depicts that production of palm oil has been affiliated with deforestation, which has impacted biodiversity, climate, soil erosion, pollution, and negative effects on human rights. As such, Unilever (2016) stipulates several principles to build the confidence of its clients that the palm oil utilized by them is sustainably sourced. Hence, sustainable palm oil has reference to as the palm oil, which has been legally produced and void of adverse impacts on the environment, biodiversity, climate, and does not affect the human rights.
Role of governments
The governments have a role to play in ensuring that palm oil production does not bring forth adverse effects on the humans and the climate (UNPD 2015, p.1). As such, varied governments should devise policies to protect the natural resources while protecting the livelihoods of palm famers. This will strike a balance between economic growth and environmental protection. For example, for sustainable palm production in Indonesia, there is a need for a comprehensive policy to offer practical solutions to the farmers; this can be attained through shareholder collaboration that is the communities and farmers, private sector, and the government (UNDP 2015, p.1). The governments also have the obligation of promoting sustainable production of palm oil; this entails ensuring that the palm oil produced commercially is obtained from legal producers to avoid illegal production and encroachment of forests and private lands. Besides, through instituting of labelling laws, the governments can create awareness regarding the presence of palm oil in products to avoid hidden ingredients. In so doing, the production companies will not be hiding palm oil as generic vegetable oils, but instead ensure that what the labels have is what is contained in the ingredients (The Guardian, 2017).
References
Ernah, P. P., & Waibel, H. (2016). Adoption of Sustainable Palm Oil Practices by Indonesian Smallholder Farmers. Journal Of Southeast Asian Economies, 33(3), 291-316. doi:10.1355/ae33-3b
Greenpeace. (2013). Palm Oil. Retrieved from http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/forests/palm-oil [Accessed March 10, 2017]
Hinrichsen, N. (2016). Commercially available alternatives to palm oil. Lipid Technol. 2016 Apr; 28(3-4): 65–67. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4834613/ [Accessed March 10, 2017]
The Guardian. (2017). EU labelling changes force industry action on palm oil. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2014/dec/12/eu-labelling-changes-palm-oil-consumer-change [Accessed on March 12, 2017]
Unilever. (2016). Unilever Sustainable Palm Oil Sourcing Policy – 2016. Retrieved from https://www.unilever.com/Images/unilever-palm-oil-policy-2016_tcm244-479933_en.pdf [Accessed March 10, 2017]
UNPD. (2015). Indonesia government addresses deforestation challenges in its aim to double palm oil production by 2020. Retrieved from http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/presscenter/pressreleases/2015/03/11/indonesia-government-addresses-deforestation-challenges-in-its-aim-to-double-palm-oil-production-by-2020.html [Accessed on March 10, 2017]
World Wildlife Fund (WWF). (2013). Illegal Palm Oil Plantations Threaten Protected Forests. Retrieved from https://www.worldwildlife.org/stories/illegal-palm-oil-plantations-threaten-protected-forests [Accessed March 10, 2017]
World Wildlife Fund (WWF). (2017a). Sustainable agriculture: Palm oil overview. Retrieved from https://www.worldwildlife.org/industries/palm-oil [Accessed March 10, 2017]
