LONDON, ENGLAND, December 2, 2008: A major international study says palm oil plantations reduce plant and animal diversity, and do little to reduce carbon emissions. Researchers say tropical forests are increasingly cleared to make way for palm oil crops, leading to a reduction in habitats for many rare species. The problem is most acute in Malaysia and Indonesia which produce around 85% of the world’s palm oil. The report is published in the journal Conservation Biology.
Palm oil is a common vegetable oil, and is now regarded as a major source of biodiesel, however the researchers question whether it really offers environmental benefits over conventional fossil fuels. Clearing land to start plantations involves burning huge tracts of forest, a process which produces large amounts of greenhouse gasses such as carbon dioxide. The researchers estimate at least 75 years of biofuel production is needed from the plantations, to save on emissions anything like the amount of carbon dioxide produced by this burning. The lead author of the study is Finn Danielsen of Denmark’s Nordic Agency for Development and Ecology. “Our analysis found that it would take 75 to 93 years to see any benefits to the climate from biofuel plantations on converted tropical forestlands,” he said.