Palm oil doesn't have to be bad for the environment

As traditionally practiced in southeast Asia, oil palm cultivation is responsible for widespread deforestation that reduces biodiversity, degrades important ecological services, worsens climate change, and traps workers in inequitable conditions sometimes analogous to slavery.

This doesn't have to be the case. Following examples set forth by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil and firms like Golden Hope Plantations Berhad, a Malaysian palm oil producer, oil palm can be cultivated in a manner that helps mitigate climate change, preserves biodiversity, and brings economic opportunities to desperately poor rural populations.

Conserving natural forests

The most important step in reducing the environmental impact of palm oil is banning the establishment of oil palm plantations in natural forest areas and peatlands. Oil palm cultivation in both these areas does more harm than good, either through the reduction of biodiversity and ecological services (natural forests) or through the release of massive amounts of carbon dioxide (peatland conversion). Oil palm plantations should be encouraged on existing agricultural lands and areas that have been heavily degraded and deforested.

Retaining natural forest cover is particularly important near oil palm plantations where forest serves as a refuge for predators of oil palm pests and can help reduce soil erosion on hillsides and water catchment areas, while slowing and reducing water runoff.

Minimizing haze

Every year a choking haze spreads across large parts of southeast Asia. While most of this results from peatland and forest fires, some of the pollution is produced by vegetation burning on oil palm plantations. This impact can be reduced using "zero burning replanting" techniques pioneered by Golden Hope Plantations.

Instead of burning oil stands of unproductive oil palm, Golden Hope cuts and shreds them and lets them decompose. This helps fertilize the soil for future crops--shortening the fallow period and lessening the need for chemical fertilizers--and reduces both "haze" and greenhouse gas emissions. Further, under zero burning techniques, land-clearing is cheaper ($300-400 per hectare saved in replanting costs) and independent of weather conditions. Concerns over increased risk of beetle infestation can be abated by using leguminous cover crops which also fix nitrogen, enhancing the soil.

Pest control

Monocultures in tropical climates often suffer from pest problems--oil palm plantations are no exception. Generally plantation owners are heavy users of pesticides that pollute waterways and affect local wildlife.

Golden Hope has taken a different approach. It has reduced its use of chemicals by focusing on biological control, including the use of beetles, birds, and fungi to deal with common oil palm pathogens. Golden Hope builds owl boxes to attract rodent-eating barn owls and plants native tree species to draw bats and other insectivores. When pesticides are determined absolutely necessary, the company employs highly selective application of insecticides to control the worst outbreaks. Because it relies on early detection of pests, large-scale applications are rarely needed. ...

Whole article http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0404-oil_palm.html

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