Palm oil ban raises fresh concerns

A BAN on palm oil due to fears it may cause deforestation could displace rather than halt global biodiversity losses as it would likely increase output of other oil crops to meet rising vegetable oil demand, an international survey showed yesterday.

Palm oil has been at the heart of heated debate in recent years, notably in the European Union where the Parliament has suggested banning its use in transport fuels altogether, raising outcry in producers Indonesia and Malaysia.

An EU deal was adopted earlier this month to phase out of its use by 2030.

The report released by the International Union for Conservation of Nature acknowledged palm oil was eating into tropical forests and stressed that because palm trees were grown in the species-rich tropics, its production could have catastrophic effects on global biodiversity.

The Switzerland-based IUCN said palm oil production was threatening over 190 species, with orangutans, gibbons and tigers among those suffering severe harm.

Areas into which palm oil could expand are home to more than half of the world’s threatened mammals, and almost two-thirds of all threatened birds, the report found.

But if other oil crops — which require up to nine times as much land to produce than palm oil — were to replace palm oil the damage could shift to ecosystems such as the South American tropical forests and savannahs, IUCN said.

“Palm oil is decimating South East Asia’s rich diversity of species as it eats into swathes of tropical forest,” report lead author and Chair of IUCN’s Oil Palm Task Force Erik Meijaard said in a statement.