Confronting the Globalization of Palm Oil
What do your cosmetics, processed foods, and biofuels all have in common? Palm oil.
The palm oil industry has exploded in the last century, from the first commercial oil palm tree plantation in 1917, to today, when 70% of personal care items include some form of palm oil or its derivatives. In the two decades from 1995 to 2015, annual palm oil production quadrupled to 62.6m tons, with estimates that it will quadruple again in half that time, reaching 240m tons by 2025. As production expands exponentially–predominantly, thus far, in Southeast Asia–critics have raised environmental and social concerns for the communities impacted. But the rapid industry growth of the past century and the countering critiques are only one chapter in the long life of palm oil, a product native to West Africa whose origin stretches back 5,000 years.
Palm oil’s rapid growth can be attributed in part to its positioning as the “fix-all” to a plethora of problems. Malaysia, along with Indonesia, is responsible for 85% of the world’s palm oil production. Stretching back to the 60s, government officials within these countries, along with international organizations like the IMF and World Bank, lauded the palm oil industry as the key to eradicating poverty–viewing it as an easy way to create economic opportunity–and for decades they continued to set policies that encouraged the industry’s growth. In the U.S., biodiesel, and therefore palm oil, was inaccurately celebrated as a climate-friendly alternative to petroleum. Palm oil has been widely embraced by producers of everything from soap and laundry detergent to cosmetics as the answer to consumers’ demands for more “natural” ingredients and substitutes for animal-based products. Palm oil is also the most cost-effective vegetable oil to produce, offering a higher yield per acre than alternatives.
With the recent boom in the industry has come new criticisms, particularly regarding environmental concerns. Keeping up with rapidly increasing demand has resulted in vast deforestation in Malaysia and Indonesia to make room for oil palm plantations. Criticisms of the palm oil industry have intensified in recent years–highlighting how deforestation harms the environment, displaces wildlife, and uproots local communities– but the prevailing narrative excludes an important part of palm oil’s story–its origin story.
“Growing oil palms is now the largest cause of deforestation in Indonesia, contributing to global warming and destroying crucial habitat for the country’s endangered orangutan population.”
“Deforestation has often been linked to human rights violations. People are losing access to the land they have always lived on and farmed.”
The oil palm tree is native to West and Central Africa, originating along the coastal strip from Liberia to Angola some 5,000 years ago, and to this day it plays a central role in the traditions, cultural and religious customs, and economies of West African communities. Extracted oils and other parts of the oil palm tree are used as natural medicines, cooking oils, main ingredients for traditional meals and beverages, fertilizers, animal feed, and household items like baskets and brooms. In Côte d’Ivoire, palm oil is a central element of creation stories, considered a direct gift from God to the first humans. Most of the region’s recipes and traditions rely on red palm oil from the flesh of the fruit, not the refined form of palm oil extracted from the pit that we find in many of our products here in the U.S.
“The problem with palm oil production is because of colonialism, capitalism and imperialism. The discourse of palm oil has been so rooted in those ideologies and leaves little room for people to actually look at where it all started . . . If you are concerned about issues within our food system — exploitation of labor, land rights, water rights, deforestation, habitat destruction, to name just a few — the production of the palm oil primarily consumed outside of West Africa involves all of these.”
Oil palm trees in West Africa
While the cultural histories of these West African communities have gone largely unacknowledged in the broader public dialogue surrounding palm oil, only five decades ago these African nations provided 71% of the global supply of palm oil. That number has dropped drastically - down to 4% - as Southeast Asia became the center of the global palm oil supply chain. Yet now, as the industry re-trains its sights on West Africa once more for production expansion, the intentions of major industry players must be called into question.
As the palm oil industry becomes increasingly under fire, the governments of top producing nations have been pressured to enact protections, such as Malaysia’s 2010 commitment to keeping half of the nation’s land forested (although persistent criticisms suggest the government has not lived up to its promises and has misled the public on the reality of deforestation). With less land available for cultivation due to increasing deforestation regulations, the price of land increases, and it becomes more expensive to produce palm oil. Major industry players are left with the choice to adopt sustainable practices at a higher cost of production, or expand into a new, unregulated market to keep production costs low. The latter option has shifted the focus of many palm oil firms from Southeast Asia to West Africa.
“In the past decade, 1.8m hectares have been leased for palm oil production in West Africa, while another 1.4m hectares is still desired.”
As firms enter the region, local life is threatened and displaced. Communities are moved off of their land. Local, sustainable palm oil industries are disrupted. Livelihoods and cultural traditions are threatened.
“Millions of hectares have already been set aside for palm oil-based agrofuel production, with the result that whole communities are being pushed off their land. They are losing their livelihoods and watching their biodiverse natural ecosystems give way to palm monocultures. Women in particular are losing a valuable source of income offered by palm oil.”
In 2016, leaders from seven African countries (representing 70% of Africa’s tropical rainforests) signed a declaration pledging their commitment to developing a sustainable palm oil industry in the region.
But the past has shown us how commitments and certifications are not enough on their own; we need proof of action and standards that live up to the promises being made–truly sustainable progress cannot take shape without cooperation and initiative from stakeholders across the supply chain. Regardless of government pledges, the expansion of industrial palm oil production into West Africa lays bare the priorities of global producers to bolster their bottom line in spite of detrimental environmental and social consequences. As this development unfolds, we cannot ignore the paradox at play as West Africa is lauded as a new frontier for the palm oil industry, when in reality the region is the point of origin of the product and carries thousands of years of palm oil history and traditions.
As two very different realities of palm oil production and consumption intersect on the continent, we need to think critically about the sources driving this expansion and ask ourselves what we risk losing in the process. How might communities’ cultural and historical relationship with palm oil be jeopardized in the face of the evolving industry? Is there an effective way for global palm oil production to expand in West Africa while protecting the livelihoods and histories of the region’s local communities? Or perhaps better put, can we expect global producers entering the region to prioritize the protection of the livelihoods and histories of local communities? And then more broadly, what does the expansion of the palm oil industry, as it exists today, mean for our planet?
Sources:
The Atlantic: “Rumble in the Jungle: Activists vs Palm Oil”, Barry Estabrook
Bloomberg: “Oil Palm Growers May Profit Under Rainforest Accord”, Jeremy van Loon and Claire Leow
The Canadian African: “Don’t Ask West Africans to Stop Cooking with Palm Oil”, Afia Amoako
The Economist: “Grow but cherish your environment”
Grain: “Oil palm production in West and Central Africa”, Alphonse Yombouno, Pastor Jacques Bakulu, Hubert-Didier Madafimè, and Kadidja Kone
The Guardian: “How the world got hooked on palm oil”, Paul Tullis
The Guardian: “Malaysian palm oil destroying forests, report warns”, Tom Young
The Guardian: “Sustainable palm oil: how successful is RSPO certification?”, Oliver Balch
Heated: “The Problems With Palm Oil Don’t Start With My Recipes”, Yewande Komolafe
Mongabay: “Malaysian palm oil chief misleads on deforestation”
Nature Communications: “Oil palm expansion and deforestation in Southwest Cameroon associated with proliferation of informal mills”, Elsa M. Ordway, Rosamond L. Naylor, Raymond N. Nkongho, and Eric F. Lambin
NYTimes: “Palm Oil Was Supposed to Help Save the Planet. Instead It Unleashed a Catastrophe.”, Abrahm Lustgarten
Policy Matters (University of Illinois): “Palm Oil in West Africa: The New Frontier?”, Marin Skidmore
World Agroforestry: “The impacts and opportunities of oil palm in Southeast Asia”, Douglas Sheil, Anne Casson, Erik Meijaard, Meine van Noordwijk, Joanne Gaskell, Jacqui Sunderland-Groves, Karah Wertz, and Markku Kanninen