Environment

Momentum Builds for Deforestation-Free Palm Oil

To understand the issue, you need to know that palm oil, derived from the fruit of the oil palm tree, is a sought-after ingredient for thousands of products, from snack foods to shampoo. Its versatility and low cost have made it the most widely used vegetable oil in the world. But so far, palm oil's popularity has come at a terrible price: Today's conventional palm-oil production is one of the world's major drivers of tropical deforestation, wiping out habitat for endangered species and contributing to climate change.

The other piece of the problem is the corruption and lax laws in many regions that have allowed a sometimes shady network of producers to clearcut vast swaths of tropical forests to make way for palm-oil plantations. The clearing of those forests not only harms the habitat of many endangered species, it releases huge amounts of carbon into the atmosphere that those forests had formerly stored.

Oil-palm trees grow only in humid, tropical regions such as Indonesia and Malaysia, as well as parts of Africa and Latin America.

In addition to deforestation, palm-oil production has also led to the destruction of peat soils in many regions. While tropical forests store vast amounts of carbon, the peat soils on which some of these forests grow often contain some twenty times more. In fact, the peat soils in Southeast Asia store as much carbon as all above-ground vegetation in the Amazon. When these peat-rich soils are drained to make way for palm-oil plantations, the peat decomposes, releasing large quantities of carbon, and the soils become more susceptible to fire, which can emit even more carbon into the atmosphere.

The problem is far from solved, but in a major development, several large palm-oil purchasers, including Kellogg's and Hershey's, have recently pledged to buy only deforestation-free palm oil for their products. Two of the world's largest palm oil suppliers — Wilmar and Golden Agri-Resources — have made similar commitments for the palm oil they sell. Now pressure is mounting on some of the remaining hold-outs — like Procter & Gamble, Pepsi and McDonald's — to follow suit and do the right thing for the planet.