Paradise Wildlife Park is committed to supporting a shift in demand from unsustainable to certified sustainable palm oil (CSPO), avoiding a blanket boycott. Unsustainable palm oil production is now one of the leading global threats to wildlife in palm oil-producing areas, resulting in rapid deforestation and biodiversity loss across many tropical countries, particularly in South East Asia. We do however recognise the importance of the palm oil industry within economies of developing countries, as well as understanding palm oil is the cheapest, highest yielding and most versatile vegetable oil on the market. Along with many other conservation organisations, we believe boycotting palm oil would increase demand for other, less efficient, edible oils and displace negative environmental impacts elsewhere. With growing media attention around this subject, we wanted to better explain why a blanket boycott of palm oil is not the simple answer!
What is the problem with Palm Oil?
Palm oil is currently the world’s most widely used vegetable oil, originating from the fruit of oil palm trees, native to Central Africa. Despite originating in Central Africa, oil palm trees are now grown across the world in tropical climates to meet global demand. Palm oil is a cheap and versatile oil with many different properties and functions allowing it to be used in a huge range of products, from toothpaste to chocolate. Around 50% of all products in an average UK supermarket contain palm oil! Because of this huge demand vast areas of rainforest are being cleared to make room for palm oil plantations. Such plantations are not able to support native wildlife, and as a result, animal numbers in these areas are falling fast. 193 critically endangered, endangered and vulnerable species are impacted globally by the production of palm oil including the iconic Sumatran Tiger (1).
Why don’t we just stop using palm oil?
The impacts of palm oil production present a huge conservation challenge, and the first instinct of many is to encourage a blanket boycott. It is however important to remember that there are some major benefits to using palm oil.
– Palm oil is extremely efficient and the highest-yielding vegetable crop, producing up to nine times more oil per crop than other types of edible vegetable oil. Palm oil supplies 35% of the world’s vegetable oil on just 10% of the land allocated to oil crops (1). A switch to other crops will therefore result in the use of at least nine times as much land to produce the same yield as palm oil. A blanket boycott will shift the environmental and social impacts of unsustainable palm oil to a different oil crop industry.
– A blanket boycott of palm oil will likely drive the price of palm oil down. We will likely then see an increase in demand, particularly in developing countries, where there is less interest in sustainability. The incentive to produce environmentally sustainable palm oil is then reduced.
– Millions of people work in the palm oil industry and it plays an important role in reducing poverty in producing countries. Stopping the production of palm oil would leave many people without jobs, and unable to support their families.
We must demand sustainable palm oil or producers will not have the motivation to produce it!
What is sustainable palm oil?
Paradise Wildlife Park, alongside other conservation organisations, are now promoting the use of sustainably sourced palm oil. Sustainable palm oil is produced in a way that minimises negative environmental impacts, protecting habitats and species as well as benefiting local people. The most widely recognised certification scheme is the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). Palm oil produced according to RSPO standards, as of 2018, is required to be deforestation-free. Manufacturers, retailers and traders all over the world have made bold commitments to removing deforestation from their supply chains. The RSPO have environmental standards, reducing the impacts palm oil has on the environment and biodiversity, and social standards, ensuring members are adhering to high standards of human rights. One example standard is producers of palm oil need to stop converting rainforest, peatland and other sensitive natural habitats to palm oil plantations. Yields should instead be increased on existing plantations, and expansion is limited to degraded land not classified as High Conservation Value or High Carbon Stock. Only 19% of palm oil produced is currently certified as sustainable by the RSPO (2).
The RSPO recognises four supply chain models for its certified palm oil (2):
– Identity preserved – the oil delivered to the end-user has a fully transparent supply chain (i.e. palm oil is 100% sustainable).
– Segregated – the oil delivered to the end-user comes only from certified sources. However, oils from different certified sources can be mixed, therefore the supply chain is not fully transparent.
– Mass balance – certified oil is tracked throughout the supply chain but can be mixed with non-certified oil.
– RSPO credits – the supply chain is not monitored for the presence of sustainable palm oil. Instead, retailers and manufacturers buy Credits from RSPO- certified growers, crushers and independent smallholders.
What are we doing at Paradise Wildlife Park?
We at Paradise Wildlife Park are working hard towards a more sustainable future! We are currently assessing our products onsite, aiming to support manufacturers and suppliers that are either already using, or looking into using certified sustainable palm oil only. It is important we work with these manufacturers and suppliers and educate those unaware of schemes, such as RSPO, to increase the quantity of CSPO used globally. We are happy to change manufacturers and suppliers if any refuse to assist us on our path towards the use of CSPO only.
It is also very important to educate our visitors on the issues surrounding palm oil. Most of our visitors are unaware that there is an alternative to unsustainable palm oil and believe a boycott of this vegetable oil is the only solution. By engaging with these visitors, we can educate them on the complex issue that is palm oil production, helping them to make informed decisions in their everyday lives. Changing our consumer habits is the biggest way we can help achieve change.
What can you do at home?
– The biggest thing you can do at home is support supermarkets and manufacturers that use CSPO. Often it is difficult to tell whether a product contains CSPO, as it is poorly labelled. Using websites such as RSPO or downloading the WWF palm oil scorecard, will help you to identify RSPO approved products.
– Download mobile apps to make sustainable behaviours easier to adopt! One example is ‘Giki’ a free to download a mobile app that provides sustainability information about more than 250,000 products.
– If you have a favourite product that contains palm oil that is not sustainable, contact that supermarket or brand and find out why! Remember it is consumers that will encourage supermarkets and manufacturers to make a change. You can also contact them to request better labelling on packaging to help consumers shop more sustainably. Remember it is more than just food items that contain palm oil.
(1)- Meijaard, E. et al. (eds.) (2018). Oil palm and biodiversity. A situation analysis by the IUCN Oil Palm Task Force. IUCN Oil Palm Task Force Gland, Switzerland: IUCN.
(2)- RSPO, 2019. RSPO Supply Chains. [online] Available at: www.rspo.org/certification [Accessed 9th Dec. 2019].
