NUSA DUA, Indonesia, (AFP) - It is blamed for
everything from deforestation to threatening the extinction of the
orangutan, but palm oil is a vital source of income for many
developing countries, the crop's producers say.
In Indonesia, the world's largest palm oil producer, where the
plant provides work for three million people, the government is
keen to promote the benefits of the crop.
Gatot
Irianto, research director at Indonesia's Ministry of Agriculture,
pleaded with producers, scientists and NGOs meeting on the holiday
island of Bali last week to reconsider the plant's reputation.
"Stop
demonising palm oil," he urged. Irianto says palm oil should be
considered a "gift from nature" that provides a significant
economic boon for the country, where it is "helping to eradicate
poverty".
But in
many parts of the Western world, and in Europe in particular, palm
oil is a byword for ecological disaster; a crop that requires the
slashing and burning of vast areas of forest and is a major
contributor to global warming.
Nazir
Foead, head of WWF Indonesia, said the crop's reputation is
deserved because of the way the industry has behaved in recent
years.
He
says millions of hectares (acres) of tropical rainforest have been
razed in Indonesia and neighbouring Malaysia to make way for the
palm plantations that make up 80 percent of the world's total.
"But
things are changing," he accepts. "Some players have understood
that their activity could be linked to deforestation."
Financial pressure has forced at least one big producer to review
its business practices after a key partner walked away.
Smart,
a leading Indonesian palm-based company, involved in marketing and
exporting products such as cooking oil, was dropped by Anglo-Dutch
giant Unilever after a Greenpeacereport accused it of tropical
deforestation.
Daud
Dharsono, the company's president, disputes the accuracy of
the Greenpeace report, but said the firm had since
reaffirmed its commitment to sustainable production to limit the
environmental impact of its plantations.
"There
will be no conversion on land with high carbon stock as well as
land with high biodiversity value, no development on peat soil and
primary forests."
For
its part, Greenpeace said it was pleased with the
commitments, but was now waiting to see action on the ground.
The
pressure also comes from big European retailers like Marks and Spencer, which recently launched an
anti-palm oil campaign, saying it would use alternatives such as
rapeseed oil wherever possible.
The
retailer is one of the 400 members of the Roundtable on Sustainable
Palm Oil, formed in 2004 to promote sustainable palm oil
production.
One of
the group's founders, WWF, says dedicated plantations have so far
produced over 1.4 million tonnes of certified sustainable palm
oil.
Most
experts agree that demand for palm products such as cooking oil,
margarine, soaps, cosmetics and resins, will continue to increase
and better management is the only way to reduce its environmental
impact.
"Rapid
growth in global demand, notably from China and India, is likely to
drive land use change. We cannot change that," said Moray McLeish
of the World Resources Institute.
"The
solution is an increased utilisation of degraded land," which
usually results from deforestation or overgrazing, he said.
Jean-Charles Jacquemard, an engineer at CIRAD, the French Centre
for Agricultural Research said palm oil was too profitable for
producers in Asia and Africa to abandon, regardless of pressure
from the West.
"It is
a plant which has many benefits for them. It produces a large
amount of oil per hectare, three to six times more than rapeseed or
sunflower," he said.
"Its
cultivation uses relatively little fertilizer -- around eight
kilogrammes (18 pounds) per tree per year."
In
Indonesia, 40 percent of production comes from small producers who,
by farming between 10 and 20 hectares, "are able to live decently
and send their children to university", he said.by Jerome Rivet