Some 9000 miles away from the United States, decisions made by President George W. Bush almost two decades ago are still reaping disastrous consequences. The Pacific nation of Borneo was once engulfed in lush, viridian rainforest. Now, it lies dominated by acre upon acre of charred tree stumps, smoky skies, and rivers of sludge. As Borneo inches closer to something out of a dystopian film (or perhaps the aftermath of the Oncler in The Lorax), what was once a sanctuary to hundreds of species of animals, is now a mass graveyard, with endemic species rapidly shrinking in population, and several on the brink of extinction (1). Centuries-old trees have had their roots ripped from the ground, and orang-utan bodies scatter the barren land, riddled with bullets. The surface of the Earth has been scarred - the scene of a battle between nature and man in which nature has been defeated. Bountiful and rich rainforest has been culled to make room for stretches of a uniform, singular crop that now envelops the island. The harvest? An unsuspecting ingredient found in most foods on the supermarket shelf - palm oil.
Palm oil wasn’t always the villain. In fact, it was once heralded as a path towards saving the planet. In the mid-2000s, President Clinton began drafting environmental laws that other Western nations soon emulated (2). The laws encouraged homegrown energy to be drawn from rural locations in great need of an “economic boost”. More specifically, fuel producers were required to mix in palm, soy, and other vegetable oils with diesel fuel, as detailed in the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA). All of this was an effort to lower carbon dioxide emissions. Indeed, a profound effect was felt, yet it could not be further from the laws’ initial intentions. US biodiesel production between 2006 and 2016 jumped to almost six times its scale, and biodiesel imports burgeoned from near zero to over 100 million gallons per month (2). As the demand for vegetable oil increased vastly, and the fuel industry used up “every ounce of domestic soy oil” to meet the new American fuel mandate, other industries such as the food industry, began replacing the soy they had been using with palm oil (2). Far cheaper and just as efficient, they sourced it largely from Indonesia and Malaysia - the sources of almost 90% of the global supply. The lawmakers never foresaw the possibility that their climate saving plan might instead introduce one of the most significant threats to Earth’s tropical rainforests. Yet, as palm oil from Indonesia began to inundate Western markets, that is precisely what started to happen.
There are vast amounts of carbon trapped within the soil and trees of Indonesian rainforests, particularly within Borneo’s peatland regions. Burning and slashing the existing rainforest to pave the way for palm oil cultivation had the perverse effect of helping the planet - it released more carbon. And a lot more. According to NASA research, the accelerated destruction of the Borneo rainforest contributed to “the largest single-year global increase in carbon emissions in two millenniums”, an escalation that converted Indonesia into the planet’s fourth-largest source of such emissions (2). Rather than creating an ingenious technocratic solution to lower America’s carbon footprint, lawmakers had “lit the fuse on a powerful carbon bomb” that, as the rainforests were burned and cleared, released more carbon than the entirety of Europe (2). Meanwhile, the unexpected palm-oil boom has emboldened and enriched many of the largest corporations in the region, which have begun to use their newfound wealth and power to base workers, suppress critics, and obtain even more land to produce oil. As if these consequences weren’t enough, the most immediate victims are the native wildlife. The habitats of already endangered species such as the pygmy elephant, Sumatran rhino, and the orangutan, are being destroyed (3). Additionally, many animals are seen as pests and as they roam the crops that have replaced their territory they face being shot by farmers.
Conservation is complicated, however. There are many factors that have played a role in the popularity of palm oil. It is extremely versatile, with the ability to extend the shelf-life of products without altering the smell or look of food products (3). Above all else, it is an immensely efficient crop, as it produces more oil per area of land than any equivalent vegetable oil crop. For example, to yield the same amount of soybean or coconut oil, between 4 and 10 times more land would be needed. Hence, while one’s immediate thought may be to boycott palm oil, doing so would only shift the problem elsewhere, threatening other species, habitats, and communities. Additionally, millions of smallholder farmers depend on palm oil production for their livelihoods. Thus, rather than boycotting palm oil, we must demand action to confront the issues and focus on developing palm oil sustainably. A positive step in the right direction is to purchase palm oil products that have been certified by the Rainforest Alliance or WWF. The only palm oil they use is from sustainable farm suppliers in Central and South America that focus on maintaining biodiversity, have not cleared any primary forest for agricultural developments, and additionally work on the restoration of rainforest habitats (4).
In a perfect world, there would be no need for palm oil and the rainforests could be saved. Unfortunately, life is far from being that simple and at this moment in time, that is not a realistic option. But while we may be unable to completely solve everything, there is always room for positive impact and steps towards change, and in this particular case, such an option would be focus on the support of sustainable palm and raising awareness on the importance of doing so (5).
1 “Making Palm Oil Sustainable - in Pictures.” WWF, www.wwf.org.uk/updates/making-palm-oil-sustainable-pictures. Accessed 18 Feb. 2024.
2 Lustgarten, Abrahm. “Palm Oil Was Supposed to Help Save the Planet. Instead It Unleashed a Catastrophe.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 20 Nov. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/11/20/magazine/palm-oil-borneo-climate-catastrophe.html.
3 “8 Things to Know about Palm Oil.” WWF, www.wwf.org.uk/updates/8-things-know-about-palm-oil. Accessed 18 Feb. 2024.
4 “Responsible Palm Oil: Follow Your Heart®.” Follow Your Heart®, followyourheart.com/responsible-palm-oil/. Accessed 18 Feb. 2024.
5 Manka, Stephanie. “Why I No Longer Boycott Palm Oil.” Stephanie Manka, Ph.D., 27 Dec. 2020, stephanieschuttler.com/why-i-no-longer-boycott-palm-oil/.
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