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Amazon palm oil: Palm oil industry moves into the Amazon rainforest Rhett Butler, mongabay.com July 9, 2008
The agency will partner with Braspalma, a local company, to form Felda Global Ventures Brazil Sdn Bhd. FELDA will have a 70 percent stake in the venture. "As a start, 20,000ha in Tefe will be opened for oil palm planting. After that, between 3,000ha and 5,000ha will be opened yearly," said Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak. "Felda wants to emulate Petronas as a global player," he added, referring to Malaysia's national oil company. Wednesday's announcement had been expected. Last month Najib said Malaysia would seek to expand its booming palm oil industry overseas. The country is facing land constraints at home. Accordingly, Felda chairman Tan Sri Mohd Yusof Noor said the agency had been offered 105,000ha in Papua New Guinea, 45,000ha in Aceh on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, and 20,000ha in Kalimantan on the island of Borneo. Palm oil and the Amazon
The potential for palm oil plantations in the Brazilian Amazon is vast: the Woods Hole Research Center estimates that 2.283 million square kilometers (881,000 sq miles) of forest land in the region is suitable for oil palm, an area far greater in extent than that which could be converted for soy (390,000 sq km) or sugar cane (1.988 million sq km). Woods Hole calculates this area of forest locks up some 42.5 billion tons (gigatons) of carbon in above-ground biomass, or roughly six times 2006 global emissions. Converting this area for palm would release nearly 60 percent of this carbon (oil palm plantations in SE Asia store about 75 tons of carbon per hectare). 
Oil palm expansion in the Amazon will likely be facilitated by infrastructure projects currently underway in these region, including road-building, port expansion, and new hydroelectric projects. Oil palm producers may also benefit from a "logging subsidy" whereby timber harvested from a tract of land helps offset the cost of establishing a plantation. Before the recent run-up in palm oil prices, logging had been a key element to the profitability of oil palm plantations in Southeast Asia. Palm oil economics
Palm oil and biodiversity Oil palm plantations support significantly lower levels of biodiversity than even logged rainforests. Research by Lian Pin Koh and David Wilcove found a 77 percent decline in forest bird species and an 83 percent loss of butterfly species upon the conversion of old-growth forest to oil palm plantations. By comparison, secondary forest 30 years after logging retained roughly 80 percent of the original forest species. Oil palm plantations also store considerably less carbon than primary forests. Reducing the impact of oil palm and other forms of agriculture in the Amazon
Better enforcement of existing Brazilian environmental laws -- including requirements to leave a portion of one's land forested and riparian buffer zones -- coupled with Brazil's real-time satellite monitoring of forest cover could further reduce the worst impacts of extensive palm oil cultivation in the Amazon. Because oil palm plantations offer higher yields on a per hectare basis than either soy or beef production, the establishment of regulations that restrict new development to already cleared lands or secondary forests could result in a net economic gain for the region without the need to clear more forest. In a sense, if the highly productive oil palm plantations replace low-intensity cattle pasture already established in the region, the Amazon may well be richer economically and biologically. An important copmonent to this would be the maintenance riparian zones and migration corridors along with the protection of critical habitats.
More data on palm oil production and use (units = metric tons, 2008 market year)
Chart/Graph: Market share of top 5 palm oil producers for the 2008 market year  More news on palm oil (full list of articles) Palm oil producers in Indonesia reject moratorium on forest destruction (8/28/2008) Palm oil companies operating in Indonesia have rejected a proposed moratorium on clearing forests and peatlands for oil palm plantations, reports the Jakarta Post. Biofuels 200 times more expensive than forest conservation for global warming mitigation (8/27/2008) The British government should end subsidies for biofuels and instead use the funds to slow destruction of rainforests and tropical peatlands argues a new report issued by a U.K.-based think tank. The study, titled "The Root of the Matter" and published by Policy Exchange, says that "avoided deforestation" would be a more cost-effective way to address climate change, since land use change generates more emissions than the entire global transport sector and offers ancillary benefits including important ecosystem services. Haze risk returns as fires increase in Indonesia (8/26/2008) The number of forest fires burning in Indonesia is increasing, raising concerns for the potential return of choking haze to the region. Malaysia targets Africa and the Amazon for oil palm expansion (8/25/2008) Facing land scarcity at home and environmental complaints, Malaysian palm oil producers should look overseas to expand operations, a high-ranking Malaysian agricultural minister said Monday. Biofuel production in Brazil may not hurt Amazon, food supply (8/21/2008) Biofuel production in Brazil will not affect food production or the Amazon rainforest in coming years, claimed a study released Tuesday by an economist in Sao Paulo. News index | RSS | News Feed Advertisements: Organic Apparel from Patagonia | Insect-repelling clothing |
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