Palm Oil: an Overview and Message of Hope
By Jessa Franck-McCauley,
Zookeeper, Mesker Park Zoo
Jfranck@meskerparkzoo.com
In the summer of 2011, I traveled to Malaysia with a group of zoo professionals for a field trip under the auspices of the AZA Orangutan SSP. We spent the first week conducting a husbandry and enrichment workshop at Zoo Negara in Kuala Lumpur. The second week was spent touring Sabah, Borneo, learning about local conservation efforts and the effects of oil palm plantations.
Palm oil is harvested from the oil palm (Elaeis guineensis). The trees produce clusters of small red fruit. The pulp of the fruit is made into palm oil. The core of the fruit is made into palm kernel oil. Those are the two most easily recognized names, but there are a lot of other variations making it important to carefully read the ingredient labels on food and cosmetic/hygiene products. Palm oil in cosmetic/hygiene products can be even harder to identify because there are other sources of these chemicals. Very few products label the source of these chemicals, so if consumers want to continue to use these types of products while still being palm oil-aware, individual product research is needed.
Palm oil is used in a variety of ways. It was adopted by the food industry as an alternative to trans-fats, although studies have shown it is not the healthiest oil available.
Palm oil in cosmetic and hygienic products has a multitude of purposes including producing suds, lubrication, stabilization, and emulsification.
There is debate in the conservation community right now about the use of sustainable palm oil. To be classified as sustainable palm oil the growers have many regulations including not clear-cutting rainforest for plantations, using chemicals in a safe manner, and paying employees fair wages. The main governing body for sustainable palm oil is the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). The RSPO was founded in 2004 by the World Wildlife Fund and major players in the palm oil supply chain and its stakeholders. Our group visited a palm oil plantation that was working on becoming RSPO certified.
Another RSPO requirement is to not harm wildlife that enters the plantation. On a lot of plantations, the wildlife that is considered destructive is destroyed and usually not in a humane manner. Orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus) are some of the most-recognized victims of this practice. Mothers are killed leaving infants orphaned. Some of these orphans are sold in the pet trade. Some make it to rehabilitation centers. Our group visited Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Center near Sandakan, Borneo. The orangutans housed there are raised in such a way that they can be released back into the wild.
Some conservationists seem to have two big issues with sustainable palm oil. The first question is how reliable are the regulatory bodies ensuring that growers are following the rules. The second question is how companies can guarantee that they are using sustainable palm oil when after it is harvested it just enters the greater pool of palm oil and cannot be distinguished from non-sustainable sources.
Palm oil is not going away. It is too wrapped up in the grower countries’ economies. Malaysia and Indonesia account for the highest percentage of palm oil production and palm oil is in the top five crops of Malaysia. The main beneficiaries of money from palm oil seem to be the governments, the plantation owners and companies that use the palm oil in their products. The palm oil plantations…..
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