Palm Oil Is Not Responsible For 40
A little over a month ago, Indonesia’s Environment and Forestry Ministry sought to extend a moratorium on issuing new licenses for using forest and peatland in the country for two years.
buy canada goose jacket Indonesia faces a massive ecological issue as its forests are rapidly disappearing and palm oil has been canada goose store blamed for it. Indeed, the palm oil industry symbolizes tensions between the urgent need to preserve natural spaces and the necessary support for economic development canada goose coats in the global South. buy canada goose jacket
Palm is an exceptional oleaginous crop with an unequaled oil yield per hectare. It produces an abundant and inexpensive multi purpose oil, which is sought by both the agro food and biofuels industries.
canada goose uk black friday When properly developed and managed, palm oil plantations can play an important role in improving livelihoods and eradicating poverty in the tropics’ rural areas. The World Bank estimates that with a population increase of 11.6% and a 5% increase in per capita consumption, an additional 28 million tons of vegetable oils will have to be produced annually buy canada goose jacket by 2020. canada goose uk black friday
The European Parliament resolution of April 4, 2017 on palm oil and deforestation concluded a debate on the possibility of controlling palm oil imports with the specific aim of limiting deforestation in Southeast Asia.
cheap canada goose uk The issue was addressed in an article published by Canada Goose Outlet the French newspaper Le Monde on April 3, 2017. Dealing with environmental damage related to palm oil production, the article claimed: cheap canada goose uk
The conversion of land to oil palm plantations alone is responsible for 40% of the loss of natural forest cover around the world.
canada goose coats on sale But exploring the source of this data shows that palm oil is actually responsible for only 2.3% of the world’s deforestation. How canada goose black friday sale can this discrepancy be explained? canada goose coats on sale
Canada Goose Outlet The Le Monde article is based on a March 2017 report buy canada goose jacket cheap by the European Parliament on the social and environmental impacts canada goose coats on sale of oil palm cultivation. Our team has carefully examined this 400 page paper, from which the 40% figure most probably originates. Canada Goose Outlet
uk canada goose outlet It says “40% of global deforestation is canada goose deals due to the shift to large scale oil palm monoculture plantations” and that ” 73% canada goose outlet of the world’s deforestation results from land clearance carried out for the production of agricultural raw materials [ ].” uk canada goose outlet
canadian goose jacket These are the same deforestation figures for world agriculture and for the oil palm sector, but this time taking into account all forms of agriculture, not just “intensive” or “industrial” agriculture. canadian goose jacket
uk canada goose It is worth noting that smallholder farmers play a, role in global agricultural production: 95% of coffee, cocoa http://www.mycanadagoosejacket.org canada goose and rice production comes from them. In the palm oil sector, non agro industrial farms account for about 40% of the area and these also contribute to deforestation. uk canada goose
The data published in the European Parliament’s report are not all referenced. If the 73% figure is not connected to a source, the 40% figure is cited as originating from a 2013 technical report that follows a study commissioned by the European Commission, carried out by three private consultants.
canada goose uk outlet It states that 239 million hectares of forests were cut down during the studied period, mostly in the tropics or subtropics: 91 million hectares in Latin America; 73 million in sub Saharan Africa; 44 million in Southeast Asia. canada goose uk outlet
Agriculture is, therefore, the leading cause of global deforestation, with 24% of the land used for livestock and 29% for crops. The report provides some details of the 29% chunk of deforestation due to agricultural crops, highlighting the crops with the highest contributions soybean (19%), maize (11%), oil palm (8% %), rice (6%) and sugarcane (5%).
According to these data sets, palm oil plantations account for only 8% of the deforestation attributed to agricultural crops. In total, this represents 8% of 29%, thus 2.3% or 5.6 million hectares from the 239 million hectares of forest lost between 1990 and 2008.
canada goose black friday sale In order to find the 40% figure, we must look a little further in the technical report to where deforestation in Brazil and Indonesia is analyzed. These are the two countries in which forest losses were reported to be the highest. canada goose black friday sale
canada goose coats In cheap Canada Goose just Indonesia, 25 million hectares of forest were lost, of which 7.5 million hectares were used for agricultural production. Of these 7.5 million hectares, 2.9 million correspond to oil palm Canada Goose Parka plantations, about 40%. It is, therefore, responsible for 40% of deforestation but only that caused by the agricultural sector and only in this one canada goose clearance sale country, not the world. canada goose coats
Why we need better information
Canada Goose Online Our concern is that distorted information is able to directly shape public opinion. Reports such as the one by the European Parliament now guide public priorities in terms of regulation and policies, which is even more worrying. Canada Goose Online
The share attributable to palm oil was greater on the island of Borneo. Indeed, the most recent review study on the topic monitored forest losses over the past 40 years and found that, today, 7 million hectares of industrial plantations (for palm oil and pulp) are located in areas that were covered by primary forests in Canada Goose sale 1973.
Canada Goose Jackets This study stresses that links between industrial plantations and deforestation are not always direct. Only 25% of the deforestation occurring in Borneo corresponds to a direct conversion into plantations. Canada Goose Jackets
Canada Goose sale In other cases, forests are exploited for timber either legally or illegally and this weakens and exposes Canada Goose Jackets natural spaces to frequent fires. Deforested areas are not immediately or automatically regrown, and as a result, Indonesia alone harbors more than 50 million hectares of degraded forest land. Canada Goose sale
Sustainable solutions call for joint actions in and with producing countries. Agro industrial palm oil plantations have a real responsibility for deforestation although this is shared with other sectors of the Indonesian economy, such as pulp and paper, forestry and mining.
The increase in the frequency of uncontrolled fires is also a major cause of the degradation of forests in Sumatra and Borneo. An official from the Borneo Futures NGO interviewed in September 2015 by the Jakarta Globe, argued that the fight against forest fires remains ineffective because it does not consider the true causes.
Local communities and small farmers are the source of the majority of fires because they do not have the same means as agro industries to get access to the land.
Defining credible and effective public policies for sustainable rural development involves diverse groups of stakeholders with often divergent interests. It requires both scientists and policy makers to work with canadian goose jacket accurate data, understood in the right context and taken from verifiable sources.
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