The oil palm industry bows to NGO campaigns

Abstract

AbstractPalm oil has become the key supplier to the global edible oils market. Continued oil palm development should be a good thing as it is the most effective supplier in terms of low land usage, and it brings much needed development to poor tropical developing regions. It provides livelihoods for an estimated 4.5 million people. As a monocrop that has supplanted forest and peat lands in areas with unmatched biodiversity and inhabited by poor indigenous tribes, it has been heavily criticized for its negative environmental and social impacts. Escalating NGO campaigns, particularly from Europe, over the last seven years have seriously reined in the speed and prospects for oil palm expansion in Indonesia and Malaysia. Large corporate growers have acceded to NGO pressures, as these have resulted in high‐key boycotts by the likes of Unilever and Nestle. Many large companies have signed on as members of the World Wildlife Fund for Nature‐initiated, Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil. Multi‐national consumer brands are being persuaded to change their buying policies, with potential global implications. Strategies to ignore or deny problems in oil palm sustainability have not worked well: a handful of NGOs have played David to the palm oil Goliaths of Indonesia and Malaysia. Since mid‐2010, Indonesia's President is trying to make less‐than‐popular policy changes, and the outcomes bear watching.