The environmental impacts of the palm oil industry are widely recognized Unsurprisingly, many people, including many conservationists: Management and Finance Assignment, ICD, Ireland

The environmental impacts of the palm oil industry are widely recognized. Unsurprisingly, many people, including many conservationists, consider oil palm a major evil. What is less widely recognized is the extent to which this industry has benefited people. Oil palm development, if well-planned and managed, can provide improved incomes and employment and generate investments in services and infrastructure.

These alternative viewpoints fuel a polarised debate in which oil palm is alternatively seen as a gift from God or a crime against humanity. An important question is how to plan, guide, and assess oil palm developments to foster the greatest benefits and least harm. Such questions are particularly relevant in a global context in which many voices call for constraining oil palm developments and boycotting palm oil, but also for adhering to sustainable development goals.

In 2014, the four largest palm oil trading companies signed an agreement to end deforestation, development of peatlands, and exploitation of locals not only with their own operations but also from all of their suppliers. For environmental NGOs, the Indonesian Palm Oil Pledge represented a dramatic advance in their decades-long efforts to protect the Indonesian rainforest from further destruction.

One year later the situation appeared to have reversed. Leading figures in the government of Indonesia were calling upon the companies to withdraw their pledge. And the 2015 fire season was the worst in nearly two decades, as would-be oil palm growers set fire to rainforests and peatlands to clear them for planting.

The demand for palm oil had skyrocketed from 1990-2010 and crude palm oil (CPO) became the most highly traded edible oil. The palm oil boom had a significant impact on economic development in rural Indonesia.  Forty percent of Indonesia’s palm oil was grown by an estimated 3.5 million smallholder farmers. With government support, Indonesia had established infrastructure to mill, refine, and export the substance.