Palm Oil Buyers Scorecard

68
100
ASSOCIATED
BRITISH FOODS
IMUSA DOLUPTATIOS
What’s the
VOLORE problem EICIIS IMUS with
palm oil?
A AUT ET AUT QUI.
DAE COMNIS
CORROVIDUNT AD
PALM OIL: AN
INTRODUCTION
It’s a crucial commodity, but growing
palm oil can lead to devastating
deforestation and harm to wildlife,
people and the climate.
From margarine to lipstick, biscuits to candles, chocolate to laundry detergent, palm
oil is found in an incredible range of everyday household products. It’s also used to fuel
cars, as animal feed and in electricity generation.
In fact, it’s the world’s most produced, consumed and traded vegetable oil, accounting
for 38 per cent of global vegetable oil consumption in 2014/15. 1
Ad mos ipsapic
tatecatum aut
quo que am
Palm oil is not only extremely versatile – it’s also very productive, with a yield far
greater than other vegetable oils from a far smaller land area. It creates a huge number
of jobs, generates income for everyone from small farmers to massive global industries,
and makes a big contribution to many local and national economies.
All in all, it could be seen as a miracle plant.
But there’s a downside. When palm oil is grown in the wrong place and in the wrong
way, it can be devastating for people, wildlife, nature and the global climate.
Deforestation,
conflict and
climate change
Palm oil trees grow best in low-lying, wet, hot areas – exactly where tropical
rainforests would grow naturally. Clearing for palm oil plantations has led to
widespread destruction of rainforests, most significantly in Indonesia and Malaysia,
where 86 per cent of the world’s palm oil is grown. 2
Between 1990 and 2010 industrial palm oil plantations in these two countries grew by
almost 10 million hectares – a rate of 7-8 per cent each year. More than two-fifths of
that was planted on cleared forests, and the rest on land already cleared for farming. 3
WHEN PALM OIL
IS GROWN IN THE
WRONG PLACE AND
IN THE WRONG
WAY, IT CAN BE
DEVASTATING
This has damaged the habitats of unique wildlife including orang-utans, elephants,
rhinos and tigers, alongside a teeming array of other plants and animals. Many of these
species find themselves critically endangered due to the destruction, clearing and
fragmentation of their natural habitat.
1 United States Department of Agriculture. August 2016. Oilseeds: World Markets and Trade.
2 Ibid.
3 RSPO. Reports from the Technical Panels of the 2nd Greenhouse Gas Working Group of the RSPO.
7 WWF PALM OIL BUYERS SCORECARD 2016