Palm oil is a type of edible oil that comes from a palm fruit, on palm tree. Palm oil is used in everything from snack foods to soaps. It is found in over half all packaged items on our supermarket shelves. Some of these things are Woolworths homebrand donuts, Macrocorn Chips, Thomas Chipman Organic & Gluten Free Chips, Bellamys organic baby food, cosmetics and detergents.
There are serious and far-reaching environmental problems caused by palm oil plantations in South-East Asia. The most serious issues include the loss of habitat and biodiversity, climate change, animal cruelty, and health effects on local human populations.
Tropical forest contains over 80 species that are only found in Indonesia and Malaysia, some of the world’s most unique endangered wildlife such as the orangutan, pygmy elephant and Sumatran tiger. Due to deforestation, many species are being pushed to extinction. Tropical forests are being cleared to make way for Palm Oil plantations. Three hundred football fields of forest are being cleared every hour. This has resulted in over 3.5 million hectares of Indonesian and Malaysian forest being destroyed in the last 20 years to make way for palm oil. (4)
There is a large variety of plants and animals in South-East Asia creating biodiversity. This is considered to be important because each organism in the ecosystem does something to keep the balance of the ecosystem. Indonesia’s tropical forests represent some of the most diverse habitats on the planet. Many plant species are decreasing and animals are being pushed into the remaining forests. In Malaysia 80 mammal species are found in undisturbed forest (7). In disturbed forests only 30 mammal species are found (7). In Palm Oil plantations however there are only 11 or 12 mammals, mainly rats that are scavengers and will eat anything if they have to (7). By decreasing the number of soil microorganisms, all other organisms such as insects, birds, reptiles and mammals are affected. Palm Oil plantations have half the insects that are in undisturbed forests. This means that the whole food web is affected.
The loss of insects as primary consumers has a big effect of the other consumers. For example insects help recycle nutrients and are a food source for other species. This impacts on larger predators in the ecosystem as they become vulnerable. Other animals are also injured, killed, found, sold as pets or used in medicine. These include Sun Bears, Clouded Leopards, Proboscis monkeys, Hog deer, and Sambar deer.
Climate change is being further impacted due to burning the rain forest to get rid of the trees, which releases carbon into the atmosphere. The consequence of this is that there are higher global temperatures. Peat soil fires are very hard to put out, and may last weeks. In addition villagers are left living near peat soil that burns easily and often catches on fire. This contributes further to global warming, as well as causing health issues. Fire outbreaks add to decades of existing deforestation by palm oil, timber and other agribusiness operators, further endangering species such as the orangutan.
Animal cruelty has become more frequent since the palm oil plantations have destroyed habitats. This means that lots of animals such as Sun bears, Orangutan, exotic birds and exotic reptiles have to suffer. Orangutans are either killed when the workers make way for plantations, when they wander into a palm oil plantation hungry looking for food to eat, or in the illegal pet trade after they’ve been captured and kept as pets in extremely poor conditions. They are normally provided with extremely poor nutrition and are weak or frail and can barely move. Orangutans are considered as pests by the palm oil industry. In the deforestation process, workers are told that if wildlife gets in the way, they are to do whatever is necessary in order to dispose of them, no matter how inhumane. Often orangutans are run over by logging machinery, beaten to death, buried alive or set on fire… all in the name of palm oil. Roads are constructed for the plantation workers which exposes the forest to poachers and animal smugglers who can capture the exotic wildlife. These animals are often sold on the illegal pet trade market, used in the entertainment business, slaughtered in order to make medicines, killed for their fur, skin or ivory, or in the case of Sun bears, put in small cages and milked for their bile.
The palm oil plants are originally from West Africa and were transported to South-East Asia. This started at the beginning of the 1900s. The industry’s expansion came from the British Industrial Revolution. At that time, 250,000 tonnes of palm oil was being exported from South-East Asia. That figure has risen to over 60,000,000 tonnes today. The world’s largest producer of palm oil was Malaysia by 1950 until the 1970s when the Indonesian government began to invest in the industry. Then in 2007, Indonesia was the leading top producer and now supplies the majority of the world’s demand for this inexpensive edible oil.
In 1848, the first seedlings were brought from West Africa to South-East Asia. In 1905, a Belgian agriculturalist saw the Palm Oil trees grew better there than in West Africa, and produced more oil and better quality. He soon helped the industry move to South-East Asia and be established.
Then in 1919, 6,000 acres were planted in South-East Asia. In 1920s and 1930s more palm oil plantations were developed and the industry started to grow bigger each year.
The establishment of Palm Oil plantations meant that rainforests in South-East Asia were cut down this had a terrible impact on the wildlife’s food web.
This Food web was created by researching each species listed for their diets. Wikipedia was a primary source (8).
Some of the animals that have been impacted are Sumatran Rhino, Orangutan, Sumatran Tiger and Clouded Leopard.
The Sumatran Rhino is critically endangered because of specific, important diet needs that they need to survive. The plantations have cut down all the important food for the rhinos and now there are only fewer than 100 Sumatran rhinos left in the wild. The species was declared extinct in the wild in Malaysia in 2015 (9). Because they are a primary consumer, they have a diet of more that 100 species. They eat young saplings, leaves, twigs, and shoots. The rhinos usually consume up to an average of 50 kg of food a day. They need this diet to keep healthy and have the right amount of nutrition.
The orangutans are vital animals to the food web because they eat the seeds of fruits from the native trees. When the seed goes through their system it is pollinated. It comes out of their system and grows into a native tree. This supplies lots of food to other consumers, such as native birds and other species of monkey. As orangutans are secondary consumers they don’t just eat fruits and leaves, they also eat insects. Because of a lack of food, they are forced into other parts of the forest to eat food as they can no longer eat from that area due to plantations. Six thousand orangutans die because 80% of their habitat is lost every year. Sometimes they wander into the palm oil plantations hungry looking for food and some workers find them. The workers are told that if they see any animals in the way they have to shoot them.
Sumatran Tigers are critically endangered and there are now only 400 Sumatran tigers left in the world (10). The Sumatran tiger is a carnivore. They generally hunt larger mammals including ungulates (hoofed animals), birds and monkeys as well as smaller animals such as fish, crocodiles and fowl. The tiger’s prey depends on its habitat. Without their habitat they will have no food to eat and will either die or be forced into unfamiliar territory. In recent years Sumatra has seen a great deal of the Palm Oil industries growth and this has destroyed most of the tigers habitat. Most of the remaining Sumatran tigers now live in five National Parks, two Game Reserves, though around 100 live in an unprotected area that will most likely be lost to the industry of Palm Oil in the near future.
Clouded leopards are threatened due to loss of habitat. Even though they are great climbers, scientists believe that they do most of their hunting on the ground. The clouded leopard is a tertiary consumer as it feasts on deer, pigs, monkeys, and smaller animals such as birds. Because of a lack of habitat and food, there are no good hunting grounds for the clouded leopard, due to masses of Palm Oil plantations.
Humans are affected in many ways because of palm oil plantations. Some of the things that affect humans are climate change, Government policies and economic impacts.
Due to burning the rain forest to get rid of the trees, climate change is being further impacted. Forest fires release carbon into the atmosphere, which in turn contributes to higher global temperatures. Smoke from the fires is causing health issues for people who suffer from respiratory diseases. Peat soil fires are very hard to put out, and may last weeks. This contributes further to global warming, as well as causing health issues. Fire outbreaks add to decades of existing deforestation by palm oil, timber and other agribusiness operators, further endangering species such as the orangutan.
The government takes the land from the people to grow palm oil plantations. The local people lose their culture because the government takes away their land. This gives the government money and they don’t pay the people much money.
The people have to no option but to work on the palm oil plantations. The adults have to work long hours and it’s children as well. They have to carry heavy loads and climb the trees to earn money or come with their parents because they don’t go to school. Many local people remain poor and are reliant on the palm oil industry to survive.
Here are some ways of helping resolve the problems associated with palm oil.
Suggestion 1: One suggestion is to put labels/symbols on products containing palm oil. This would let people know if there was palm oil in that product or not. If the government of Australia did that, then there would be a decrease in palm oil demand and Australia would help the people of South-East Asia and the animals. Stop making palm oil to preserve the rain forest for the future.
Suggestion 2: Another suggestion is to advertise the campaign on TV to raise awareness of the problem. If the campaign advertised a short, sad, truthful video, that people were watching, they would be instantly shocked and would want to help.
Suggestion 3: Ecotourism projects provide employment for local people to be educated to become guides. They could take visitors to unspoilt areas and to palm oil plantations to see how sad it is that the animals are losing their habitat. This would earn money for the local guides and their families.
We must stop this devastation in its tracks.
Take action today before it’s too late.
Palm Oil Plantations 