The environmental impacts of palm oil in context

Delivering the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) requires balancing demands on land between agriculture (SDG 2) and biodiversity (SDG 15). The production of vegetable oils, and in particular palm oil, illustrates these competing demands and trade-offs. Palm oil accounts for 40% of the current global annual demand for vegetable oil as food, animal feed, and fuel (210 million tons (Mt)), but planted oil palm covers less than 5-5.5% of total global oil crop area (ca. 425 Mha), due to oil palm’s relatively high yields5. Recent oil palm expansion in forested regions of Borneo, Sumatra, and the Malay Peninsula, where >90% of global palm oil is produced, has led to substantial concern around oil palm’s role in deforestation. Oil palm expansion’s direct contribution to regional tropical deforestation varies widely, ranging from 3% in West Africa to 47% in Malaysia. Oil palm is also implicated in peatland draining and burning in Southeast Asia. Documented negative environmental impacts from such expansion include biodiversity declines, greenhouse gas emissions, and air pollution. However, oil palm generally produces more oil per area than other oil crops, is often economically viable in sites unsuitable for most other crops, and generates considerable wealth for at least some actors. Global demand for vegetable oils is projected to increase by 46% by 20509. Meeting this demand through additional expansion of oil palm versus other vegetable oil crops will lead to substantial differential effects on biodiversity, food security, climate change, land degradation, and livelihoods. Our review highlights that, although substantial gaps remain in our understanding of the relationship between the environmental, socio-cultural and economic impacts of oil palm, and the scope, stringency and effectiveness of initiatives to address these, there has been little research into the impacts and trade-offs of other vegetable oil crops. 65 Greater research attention needs to be given to investigating the impacts of palm oil production 66 compared to alternatives for the trade-offs to be assessed at a global scale

Governing sustainable palm oil supply: Disconnects, complementarities, and antagonisms between state regulations and private standards

The global palm oil value chain has grown in complexity; stakeholder relationships and linkages are increasingly shaped by new public and private standards that aim to ameliorate social and environmental costs while harnessing economic gains. Regulatory initiatives in the emerging policy regime complex struggle to resolve sector‐wide structural performance issues: pervasive land conflicts, yield differences between companies and smallholders, and carbon emissions arising from deforestation and peatland conversion. Identifying opportunities for more effective governance of the palm oil value chain and supply landscapes, this paper explores disconnects, complementarities, and antagonisms between public regulations and private standards, looking at the global, national, and subnational policy domains shaping chain actors' conduct. Greater complementarities have emerged among transnational instruments, but state regulation disconnects persist and antagonisms prevail between national state regulations and transnational private standards. Emerging experimental approaches, particularly at subnational level, aim to improve coordination to both enhance complementarities and resolve disconnects

Households’ Coping Dynamics in Response to Large-Scale Land Acquisition for Jatropha Plantations: Evidence from Asante Akim North District of Ghana

The study investigated the implications of large-scale land acquisition for jatropha cultivation on the livelihoods of farming households and the various coping strategies adopted. Three communities namely- Dukusen, Ananekrom and Afrisie in the Asante Akim North District were selected for the study based on their proximity to a large-scale jatropha plantation project and the extent of farming activities in the communities. The study employed the mixed method strategy using a cross-sectional study design. Interviews, focus group discussion and documentary analysis were espoused in gathering data for the study. The simple random sampling procedure was used in selecting 30 farming households whereas the managers of the plantation project and two local chiefs, two District Assemblymen, and the Headmasters of basic schools were purposively selected and interviewed. Correlation and descriptive statistical tools were used to analyze the quantitative data while recursive abstraction was applied in analyzing the qualitative aspects of the data. We found that prior to the large-scale land acquisition by the plantation project, all the respondents (100%) had farming as their livelihood activity and major source of food and income, but this had, however, dropped to 60% after the land acquisition for the jatropha project. The average farm size had also reduced from 3.5 acres per household to about 1.5 acres. These changes have triggered various coping dynamics among farming households within the study communities including all year round cropping, application of fertilizers, and cultivation of high-yielding varieties as well as petty trading activities to support household income and ensure sustainable livelihoods and wellbeing. The paper generally concludes that large-scale land acquisition has higher tendency of pushing farming households into adopting different coping strategies and dynamics. The findings reveal new dimensions of the empirical accounts on households’ coping dynamics in response to large-scale land acquisition.</p