Malaysia, a country in South East Asia, is about 127,700 square miles. For reference, that’s about the size of New Mexico. Despite its small size, Malaysia is the second leading producer of palm oil in the world. According to the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service, Malaysia produced 19.7 million metric tons of palm oil in 2023 alone. Palm oil is an edible vegetable oil that comes from the fruit of oil palm trees. Despite the negative health and environmental effects it can have, palm oil is used in a wide array of commodities ranging from baked goods to cleaning products. This is because oil palm trees have a high yield and a long lifespan.
Global palm oil production (2014-2023)
Even so, for decades oil palm trees have played a big part in the widespread deforestation of Malaysia’s forests. Old growth forests are crucial ecosystems that have worked to maintain the earth’s balance for centuries. Forests help reduce soil erosion, maintain biodiversity, provide materials for people, and sequester CO2. By cutting down and/or burning these forests down to replace them with palm oil plantations, we risk throwing that delicate ecosystem out of balance. While some may argue that oil palm plantations are still large tracts of land dedicated to trees, they aren’t nearly as effective as natural forests. Oil palms must be treated for pests which not only disrupts food chains and displaces wildlife, but also leads to the infiltration of harmful chemicals into the soil.
Because oil palm trees are more productive than other sources of vegetable oil, and the world is so dependent on palm oil, it cannot simply be erased. Palm oil needs to be more sustainably harvested in order to ensure a future for Malaysia’s forests. Fortunately, since 2013 major palm oil companies have implemented NDPE policies. According to ProForest, NDPE is a commitment to no deforestation, no peat, and no exploitation. These policies are meant to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, protect and restore surviving land, and respect the human rights of plantation workers, shareholders, and local communities. While there is still demand for palm oil that’s grown unsustainably in the “leakage market,” these policies play a crucial role in the movement toward sustainable palm oil.
Sources:
- https://fas.usda.gov/data/production/commodity/4243000
- https://www.proforest.net/fileadmin/uploads/proforest/Documents/Publications/infonote_04_introndpe.pdf
- https://seads.adb.org/solutions/make-agriculture-sustainable-asean-wants-farming-be-environment-and-people-friendly
- https://news.mongabay.com/2022/03/deforestation-for-palm-oil-falls-in-southeast-asia-but-is-it-a-trend-or-a-blip/