Palm Oil: Alternatives in sight?

Devastating fires in Southeast Asia and 2015’s UN climate conference in Paris have reignited the debate about the palm oil industry and sustainable alternatives. Today, according to the WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature), every second consumer product we buy at the supermarket contains palm oil, palm kernel oil or derivative products. Due to its properties, palm oil is very versatile in the food as well as in the chemical industry. Therefore, with a production volume of about 60 million tonnes p.a., palm oil is the most popular vegetable oil worldwide. More than 20% is used in non-food products such as cosmetics, detergents and candles*. Apart from providing personal care products with a smooth and creamy texture, the refined product shows a high oxidative stability and is more efficient than all other oil-bearing crops such as rapeseed, sunflower or soybean. On one hectare, more than 3.5 tonnes of oil can be produced per year; for rapeseed, approximately a six-fold area is required to obtain a comparable amount. The yield is even worse for sunflower and soy.

This could lead to the conclusion that palm oil is a renewable, efficient, cheap and multi-potent resource – in short, ideal. But, and this is an increasing problem due to the sharply rising demand for palm oil, it is destroying tropical rainforests and contributing to climate change. The oil is derived from the mesocarp of the palm fruits, primarily the African oil palm Elaeis guineensis, and to a lesser extent from the American oil palm Elaeis oleifera and the maripa palm Attalea maripa. As these palm plants grow best in warm, tropical climates, ever-expanding palm plantations threaten some of the planet’s most highly biodiverse, irreplaceable and sensitive habitats. Many problems have arisen, especially in Indonesia and Malaysia: two countries that have become the main regions for palm oil production and have a market share of about 85% of the world’s palm oil. According to Greenpeace, in Indonesia alone 31 million hectares (an area nearly the size of Germany) of rainforest have been destroyed since 1990. Globally every hour, a rainforest area the equivalent of 300 football fields is destroyed; this includes critical habitats for endangered species including orang-utans, tigers, elephants and rhinos. Furthermore, in some cases, land has been developed by oil palm plantation owners without consulting or compensating the local people who previously lived there; their land and their source of livelihood have simply been stolen. Beyond the local consequences, this deforestation has a global impact as it releases large volumes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. This does not appear by illegal fire clearing only, but also especially in peatland regions. When peat soils, consisting of organic material accumulated over thousands of years, are cleared and drained, the process of carbon accumulation is reversed and the carbon stores become carbon sources. Huge amounts of carbon dioxide are rapidly emitted and are a driver toward global warming.

We know about the consequences if we continue our overexploitation of earth, but what are sustainable alternatives in the case of palm oil? There are controversies over several options. Replacing palm oil with another vegetable oil is one conceivable option. In principle, it would be more sustainable to gain vegetable oils from locally growing crops, but it has to be considered that each other plant oil would need much more area for the same yield, with the global demand still increasing. In addition, palm oil also improves local infrastructure and provides employment to countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia. Furthermore, as the properties of different vegetable oils vary, it is not easy at all to replace palm oil.

Oily yeast as an alternative?
Against all these odds, researchers at the University of Bath claim to have hit on an alternative. It is the yeast Metschnikowia pulcherrima, which has historically been used in the South African wine industry.Less land is required for the cultivation of this oily yeast, and it matches palm oil’s key properties almost identically. It could even grow practically anywhere, using nearly any organic feedstock. Nevertheless, the development of this sustainable alternative still has a way to go. At current rates, costs to produce the yeast are much higher than palm oil, so it’s not yet economically viable. Until this becomes the case, it might be an option to use CSPO (Certified Sustainable Palm Oil), which is certified according to RSPO guidelines. RSPO stands for the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil and was founded in 2004 by major palm oil producers and consumers in cooperation with the WWF. This multi-stakeholder roundtable initiative has set up principles and criteria defining good social and environmental ractices. These aim to improve sustainability in palm oil industry and supply chains, limit the amount of deforestation and focus on fallow land. Today the RSPO has more than 2,000 registered members and the amount of CSPO has reached 20% of the total global production volume. Although sustainably cultivating palm oil by using available fallow land shows a positive energy balance and doesn’t induce climate change, the RSPO is sharply criticized from various sectors. Critics have said that the only aim of the RSPO’s certification and sustainability labels is to promote the production and restore the acceptability of palm oil; they also doubt the commitment to sustainability on the part of some RSPO members. Critics additionally charge that compliance with RSPO criteria is not reviewed adequately and that violations are rarely punished.

The search continues
A truly sustainable alternative to palm oil has yet to be found. This is only more incentive to keep searching; otherwise, the world’s current dependence on palm oil – with palm oil plantations engulfing natural forest – will destroy all rain forests on a global level.

AUTHOR: Dr Alexandra Erlach, Managing Director, Delta-SR, Neuss, Germany
Erlach@Delta-SR.com, www.delta-sr.com