What is palm oil?

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Palm oil is a type of edible vegetable oil that is derived from the palm fruit, grown on the African oil palm tree. Oil palms are originally from Western Africa, but can flourish wherever heat and rainfall are abundant. Today, palm oil is grown throughout Africa, Asia, North America, and South America, with 85% of all palm oil globally produced and exported from Indonesia and Malaysia; but most of the time not using sustainable measures.

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The industry is linked to major issues such as deforestation, habitat degradation, climate change, animal cruelty and indigenous rights abuses in the countries where it is produced, as the land and forests must be cleared for the development of the oil palm plantations. According to the World Wildlife Fund, an area the equivalent size of 300 football fields of rainforest is cleared each hour to make way for palm oil production. This large-scale deforestation is pushing many species to extinction, and findings show that if nothing changes species like the orangutan could become extinct in the wild within the next 5-10 years, and Sumatran tigers less than 3 years. 

In total, tens of millions of tons of palm oil is produced annually, accounting for over 30% of the world’s vegetable oil production. This single vegetable oil is found in approximately 40-50% of household products in many developed countries like Australia. Palm oil can be present in a wide variety of products, including baked goods, confectionery, shampoo, cosmetics, cleaning agents, washing detergents and toothpaste.

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Impacts on Environment

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A large proportion of palm oil expansion occurs at the expense of biodiversity and ecosystems in the countries it is produced. Currently, a third of all mammal species in Indonesia are considered to be critically endangered as a consequence of this unsustainable development that is rapidly encroaching on their habitat. 

One animal of particular importance according to conservationists is the orangutan, which has become a charismatic icon for deforestation in Borneo and Sumatra. Over 90% of orangutan habitat has been destroyed in the last 20 years, and as such, is considered “a conservation emergency” by the UN. An estimated 1000-5000 orangutans are killed each year for this development. The orangutan is a keystone species and plays a vital role in maintaining the health of the ecosystem. An example of this being the spread of rainforest seeds in Indonesia, many of which can only germinate once passed through the gut of an orangutan, hence this primate is essential for the existence of the forest. But the orangutan is not the only species affected by palm oil development; their situation represents the story of thousands of other species facing the same fate in South-East Asia. 

Deforestation for palm oil production also contributes significantly to climate change. The removal of the native forests often involves the burning of invaluable timber and remaining forest undergrowth, emitting immense quantities of smoke into the atmosphere and making Indonesia the third highest greenhouse gas emitter in the world.

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Impacts on Animals

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There are over 300,000 different animals found throughout the jungles of Borneo and Sumatra, many of which are injured, killed and displaced during deforestation. In addition, palm oil development increases accessibility of animals to poachers and wildlife smugglers who capture and sell wildlife as pets, use them for medicinal purposes or kill them for their body parts. The destruction of rainforests in Borneo and Sumatra is therefore not only a conservation emergency, but a major animal welfare crisis as well.

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Wildlife such as orangutans have been found buried alive, killed from machete attacks, guns and other weaponry. Government data has shown that over 50,000 orangutans have already died as a result of deforestation due to palm oil in the last two decades. This either occurs during the deforestation process, or after the animal enters a village or existing palm oil plantation in search of food. Mother orangutans are also often killed by poachers and have their babies taken to be sold or kept as pets, or used for entertainment  in wildlife tourism parks in countries such as Thailand and Bali.

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Other megafauna that suffer as a result of this development include species like the Sumatran Tiger, Sumatran Rhinoceros, Sun Bear, Pygmy Elephant, Clouded Leopard and Proboscis Monkey. Road networks that are constructed to allow palm oil plantation workers and equipment access to the forest also increase accessibility of these areas to poachers that are looking for these kinds of valuable animals. This allows poachers to comfortably drive to an area to sit and wait for their target where previously they may have had to trek through inaccessible areas of forest. 

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Impacts on People

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The establishment of oil palm plantations is often promoted as a way of bringing development to poor, rural regions of Borneo and Sumatra. While palm oil production does provide employment to many people in Southeast Asia, the industry has also had devastating impacts on groups of people in this region. All too often, the government’s main interest in the country’s economy leads them to allow corporations to take the land owned by indigenous peoples for their own financial benefit. 

The palm oil industry has been linked to major human rights violations, including child labour in remote areas of Indonesia and Malaysia. Children are made to carry large loads of heavy fruit, weed fields and spend hours every day bent over collecting fruit from the plantation floor. Heat exhaustion and cuts and bruises from climbing thorny oil palms are commonplace in these cases, and more than often not, children receive little or no pay for their efforts.

With plantations systematically destroying the rainforest land that the local people depend on, communities are continuously finding themselves with no choice but to become plantation workers. Faced with poor and degrading working conditions, some earn barely enough income to survive and support their families. Instead of being able to sustain themselves, indigenous communities become reliant on the palm oil industry for their income and survival, leaving these villagers incredibly vulnerable to the world market price of palm oil which they have no control over. 

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什么是棕榈油？

 

棕榈油是一种食用植物油，是从非洲油棕榈树上种植的棕榈果中提炼出来的。油棕原产于西非，但在热量和降雨量丰富的地方都能繁荣。今天，棕榈油种植遍及非洲，亚洲，北美洲和南美洲，全球棕榈油产量的85％来自印度尼西亚和马来西亚;但大多数时候不采用可持续措施。 由于土地和森林必须清理，以发展油棕种植园，因此该行业与生产国家的森林砍伐，生境退化，气候变化，动物虐待和侵犯土着权利等重大问题有关。根据世界野生动物基金会（World Wildlife Fund）的数据，每小时一个相当于300个热带雨林足球场的区域被清除，为棕榈油生产开辟道路。这种大规模的砍伐森林正在推动许多物种灭绝，并且调查结果表明，如果没有什么变化，猩猩在未来5 - 10年内可能在野外灭绝，苏门答腊虎不到3年。 每年总共生产数千万吨棕榈油，占世界植物油产量的30％以上。在澳大利亚等发达国家，这种单一的植物油在大约40-50％的家用产品中被发现。棕榈油可存在于各种产品中，包括烘焙食品，糖果，洗发剂，化妆品，清洁剂，洗涤剂和牙膏。

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对环境的影响

 

棕榈油的大部分扩张是以牺牲生产国生物多样性和生态系统为代价的。目前，印度尼西亚所有哺乳动物物种中有三分之一被认为是严重濒临灭绝的，因为这种不可持续的发展迅速侵占了其栖息地。 根据保护主义者的观点，一只特别重要的动物是猩猩，它已成为婆罗洲和苏门答腊森林砍伐的一个魅力象征。在过去的20年里，超过90％的猩猩栖息地遭到破坏，因此被联合国视为“保护紧急事件”。估计每年有1000-5000只猩猩死亡。猩猩是一种重要的物种，对维持生态系统的健康起着至关重要的作用。就是这样一个例子，就是印度尼西亚的热带雨林种子的传播，其中许多种子一旦经过猩猩的肠道只能萌发，因此这种灵长类动物是森林存在的必要条件。但是猩猩不是唯一受棕榈油发展影响的物种;他们的情况代表了在东南亚面临同样命运的数千种其他物种的故事。 棕榈油生产的砍伐也会对气候变化产生重大影响。原生森林的搬迁往往涉及燃烧无价的木材和剩余的森林灌木，向大气排放大量烟雾，使印度尼西亚成为世界第三大温室气体排放国。

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对动物的影响

 

婆罗洲和苏门答腊丛林中有超过30万种不同的动物，其中许多在森林砍伐过程中受伤，死亡和流离失所。此外，棕榈油的开发也增加了偷猎者和野生动物走私者获得动物的机会，这些走私者将野生动物作为宠物捕获和销售，将其用于药用目的或者杀死他们的身体部位。因此婆罗洲和苏门答腊热带雨林的破坏不仅是保护环境的紧急事件，也是一个重大的动物福利危机。 野生动物如猩猩已被发现埋在地下，从砍刀袭击，枪支和其他武器中丧生。政府数据显示，过去二十年来，由于棕榈油砍伐森林，已有超过5万只猩猩死亡。这要么发生在森林砍伐过程中，要么在动物进入村庄或现有的棕榈油种植园寻找食物之后。母猩猩也经常被偷猎者杀害，并将其婴儿作为宠物出售或保存，或在泰国和巴厘岛等国家的野生动植物旅游公园使用。 受到这一发展影响的其他巨型动物包括苏门答腊虎，苏门答腊犀牛，太阳熊，侏儒象，云豹和长鼻猴等物种。为了让棕榈油种植园的工人和设备进入森林而建造的道路网络也增加了这些地区对正在寻找这些有价值的动物的偷猎者的可及性。这使得偷猎者可以舒适地开车到一个地方坐下来等待他们的目标，在那里他们以前可能不得不在僻远的森林地区跋涉。

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对人的影响

 

经常促进油棕种植园的建立，将其发展到婆罗洲和苏门答腊的贫困农村地区。虽然棕榈油生产确实为东南亚许多人提供了就业机会，但该行业也对该地区的人群产生了毁灭性的影响。政府对国家经济的主要兴趣往往导致企业为了自身的经济利益而让土着人民拥有土地。 棕榈油产业与印度尼西亚和马来西亚偏远地区的重大侵犯人权行为有关，包括童工。孩子们被迫携带大量的重水果，杂草田，每天都要花上几个小时从种植园里收集水果。在这些情况下，由于攀爬棘手的油棕榈树而造成的热衰竭和瘀伤是司空见惯的事情，而且往往不是孩子们付出的努力很少或根本没有报酬。 随着种植园系统性地破坏当地人民所依赖的热带雨林，社区不得不成为种植园工人。面对恶劣和有辱人格的工作条件，一些人挣的勉强够收入来生存和支持他们的家庭。土着社区不但没有能力维持自己的生存，反而依靠棕榈油产业来维持收入和生存，使这些村民难以置信地容易受到无法控制的棕榈油市场价格的影响。