https://www.dpa-international.com/trends-and-features/urn:newsml:dpa.com:20090101:251015-99-340845/
Palm is the world’s most widely used vegetable oil and likely the most versatile, featuring in anything from cosmetics to chocolate to fuel to margarine.
Harvested from the oil palm tree, its yields per hectare exceed those of similar crops, meaning less land is needed to produce the same volume of oil.
But the commodity has long been a target for activists seeking to curb the destruction of jungle and orang-utan habitat in Indonesia, the world’s biggest source country, and in neighboring Malaysia.
Companies operating in the sector have been accused not only of razing jungle, but of intimidating residents, harassing critics and abusing workers.
The U.S. last week banned imports of palm oil from Malaysian company FGV Holdings, a Proctor & Gamble supplier, over allegations it uses forced labour.
But palm has been targeted excessively compared to other oils, according to scientists and conservationists writing in Cell Reports Sustainability, part of the Cell Press network of science publications.
“Almost all oils are associated with biodiversity and human rights issues,” the researchers said, listing olive oil, the high demand for which has been tied to effects such as loss of habitat for nesting birds.
While conceding that concerns about palm oil production are “justified,” the team – whose research was funded by chocolate maker Ferrero Group and who are members of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Oil Crops Taskforce – said other crops “can cause just as much ecological damage.”
“Soybean production has driven massive deforestation in South America,” the team pointed out, adding that “sesame production has been linked to human rights abuses in South Sudan and Ethiopia.”
Public debates about such crops are based more on myth than fact, the researchers said, calling for a rethink of what are deemed “good” and “bad” oils.
“Crops don’t destroy forests and other biodiverse habitats; people do,” said conservation scientist Erik Meijaard of the Brunei-based conservation group Borneo Futures and the University of Kent.
