The UK perspective Sustainable Palm Oil Supply and demand
How much palm oil does the UK actually consume – and where do we get it from? What do we use it for and how much of it is already from certified sustainable sources? Defra has just published new evidence that tackles these questions and asks, where is further action needed?
t is no secret that the production of palm oil for use in food, animal feed, biofuels and cleaning products is damaging forest and peatlands in South-east Asia and else- where. And that this damage causes significant climate change, biodiversity and international development problems.
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Destruction of both forests and peatlands causes significant emissions of greenhouse gases. Peatland emits carbon and methane when drained, whilst burning forests releases large amounts of carbon dioxide. Tropical forests and wetlands are areas of the highest biodiversity value in the world and wetlands also play an essential role in flood management and water purification. But palm oil cultivation can convert these high value areas to monoculture.
Although the palm oil industry contrib- utes to growth in developing countries and provides livelihoods for many people in rural areas, such development must be sustainable if the benefits of growth are to last. There are concerns about food security and prices, land rights and forced displacement of communi- ties due to expansion of oil palm plantations. The Secretary of State for Environment,
www.sustainablebusinessonline.com
Food and Rural Affairs, Caroline Spelman, announced at the first international Business and Biodiversity Summit, in July 2010, that Defra would be looking at the UK’s contri- bution to this damage, and at what more we might do to prevent it.
The aim of the project was to map UK palm oil consumption, understand how far the actions already agreed will improve things, and look at where further effort might be
There are concerns about food security, land rights and forced displacement of communities due to expansion of plantation
needed. The results have just been published, and they make for interesting reading.
Where does the UK get its palm oil? The study shows that in 2009 UK imports of
palm oil were made up of: n
about 595,000 metric tonnes of palm oil, mainly from Malaysia, Indonesia and Papua
New Guinea and the Solomon Islands n
about 660,000 metric tonnes palm kernel
meal (PKM), mainly from Indonesia, n
about 45,000 metric tonnes of palm kernel
oil (PKO) also mainly from Indonesia, and n
a significant volume in finished products, which is likely to be more than 300,000 metric tonnes.
In many ways these figures were no real sur- prise. We have long known that Malaysia and Indonesia dominate global exports of palm oil, with Papua New Guinea and Colombia also contributing significant volumes. The Foreign Office and Department for International Development have been work- ing with the Indonesian government for some time to encourage policies that support sus- tainable production and discourage use of forest land for plantations. And we have been working with other like-minded countries to develop an effec- tive international forest financing mechanism, known as REDD+, which will ensure that forests are of greater financial value standing, than if they are destroyed.
The figures also confirm that there is likely to be a significant volume of palm oil con- tained in the finished products which are
Sustainable Business | Sustainable Palm Oil | June 2011 | 7
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