NEW DELHI, Dec 16 (OWSA) - The spiraling demand for palm oil particularly in India, China and Pakistan, will completely destroy
forest and wildlife in the southeast Asian nation of Indonesia, unless oil traders intervened to save them, warned a new report.
The report -- Oil Palm Plantations and Deforestation in Indonesia - by the Worldwide Fund for Nature
(WWF) said that the "key actors" in the international palm oil business could encourage the development
and implementation of practices that sought to save the forests instead of destroying them.
"...The actors in the international palm oil trade chain - investors, traders and retailers - have to take over a
greater responsibility as they have more leverage over what happens to Indonesia's forests," Dieter M�ller,
WWF's forest communication officer, told OneWorld.
Global demand for palm oil, the report released Wednesday said, would increase from the current 22.5
million tons per year to 40 million tons in 2020. By this year, demand would push the need for new
plantations over at least six million hectares of land, half of which were expected to be in Indonesia.
This, the Switzerland-based global environment body warned, could cause immense ecological damage
there as Indonesia has already been reeling under the "dramatic impact" of oil palm plantations. The
country's oil palm plantations multiplied from 600,000 hectares in 1985 to more than 3 million hectares in
2000.
The Indonesian island of Sumatra, covered with millions of hectares of tropical rainforest some 50 years ago, now mostly
consisted of settlements and oil palm and pulpwood plantations. The WWF said that with two million hectares of lowland forest
destroyed each year, the last remaining tracts would be lost by 2005.
European, North American and East Asian financial institutions, the report said, had mostly financed the rapid expansion of the oil
palm sector. India, China and Pakistan, where palm oil was used for cooking, were the world's largest importers of palm oil, while
the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Germany were Europe's main palm oil importers.
The expansion, WWF pointed out, had also shrunk the habitat of endangered species such as the orangutan and the Sumatran
elephant. With the reduction in their natural habitat, elephants were raiding oil palm plantations for food. This year, angry farmers
killed 17 rampaging elephants.
"Oil palm plantations have had a destructive effect on Indonesia's threatened natural forests," said Chris Elliott, director of WWF's
Forests for Life program. "However, if financial institutions that fund this industry -- and in particular the European ones -- would
open their eyes to the damage being done, it would be perfectly possible to find and fund palm oil plantations that do not destroy
natural forests."
The report said that the destruction of forests could be prevented if planters used degraded land instead of forests for plantations.
"The expansion of oil palm to meet the still growing demand for palm oil should be based on socially and environmentally sound
land-use planning," said M�ller. "Instead of clearing natural forest for plantations, widely available degraded lands could be used
for oil palm plantations," he said.
On many occasions, natural forests had been set on fire and then converted to plantations. In 1997, forest fires in Indonesia burnt
an area of rainforest bigger than the Netherlands. Most of these were man-made, reported to be deliberately lit to clear forest for oil
palm and other crops.
WWF said that its campaign against oil palm plantations that caused environmental damage would continue with local
nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). "Indonesian NGOs are very concerned about the trends in the oil palm sector," said
Muller, pointing out that they set up 'Sawit Watch' -- a network of over 50 NGOs -- in 1998 to help ensure the rights of local
communities affected by oil palm expansion.
The demand for oil palm (Elaeis guineensis ) plantations has been growing because the plant produces more oil per hectare than
any other oilseed. Originally found in west Africa, it grows in tropical areas across the world, including southeast Asia, Pacific
regions, and Latin America.
The oil of the palm - first introduced to Indonesia in 1848 by the Dutch -- is used in a wide range of products from cosmetics and
detergents to chocolate and ice cream.
"Small wonder then that oil palm has become a bumper crop in many developing countries, providing income and employment in
isolated areas where it's often most needed," said WWF. "And with the world trade in palm oil predicted to double in the next
20-30 years, the boom looks set to continue."
