Palm Oil as a Transnational Crisis in South-East Asia

Abstract

This paper discusses the recent palm oil expansion as a multiple crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss, and (failed) development. It draws on recent research on the Malaysian “Palm Oil Industrial Complex” and on transnational campaign coalitions around palm oil to explore the transnational dimensions of the palm oil crisis. It argues that a new campaign coalition around the issue of agrofuel policies in the European Union has emerged that links social and environmental struggles in Indonesia and Europe. This new transnational activism not only rejects the palm oil development paradigm, but also points to possible alternative development futures.