Palm Oil: A Success Story in Green Technology Innovations

The Carbon Cycle of a Palm Plantation includes Harvested Wood, Rootsand Other Biomass Products Apart from its Oil and Kernels.BranchesWood productsHerbaceousvegetationLitterDead woodSoil CarbonRootsPalm plantations sequester carbon – up to 5 tonnes C/ha/year or 110 tons C forthe lifecycle of the plantation (25 years) . A natural forest sequesters a bit slower ifstarting also from scratch (around 1 tonne) but the stock is much higher.The iLUC and LUC for palm must be better integrated to accurately take intoaccount these effects. Most current LUC models take into account the initialrelease from clearing land. However, the uptake from the palm tree and rootsystems is seldom accounted for.