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Impasse over palm oil emissions at RSPO meeting Rhett A. Butler, mongabay.com November 04, 2009 Environmental groups within RSPO tried to mandate that future oil palm expansion can only occur on land with net carbon storage lower than oil palm (less than 40 tons of carbon per hectare averaged over the 25-30 year lifespan of an plantation). Such a stipulation would preclude conversion of forests and peatlands to oil palm plantations, potentially greatly limiting expansion.
Jan Kees Vis, chairman of the RSPO, expressed frustration over the failure to reach agreement. "We are disappointed because we wanted the target for this year," Vis was quoted as saying by Reuters. The initial set of RSPO criteria — which aim to improve the environmental performance of palm oil production — were approved last year after seven years in development. 'Greener' palm oil RSPO was originally formed as a response to pressure from environmentalists who maintain that oil palm production has driven large-scale destruction of rainforests across southeast Asia over the past two decades, triggering the release of billions of tons of carbon dioxide emissions and imperiling rare species, including the Sumatran tiger and the orangutan. RSPO has created a set of criteria to make palm oil production less damaging to the environment. These include using natural pests and composting in place of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers whenever possible, implementing no burn policies, sparing high conservation value forests from development, taking measures to reduce air pollution, and creating catchment ponds to prevent palm oil mill effluent from entering waterways where it would damage aquatic habitats. The hope is that CSPO can be sold at a premium to recoup the increased costs that certification entails. Still not all environmental groups have bought into RSPO. Concerns over the certification standard have been stoked by pictures which activists claim show RSPO members continuing to clear high value conservation forest areas (HCV) in violation of certification protocol. Some critics have labeled RSPO a greenwashing initiative rather than a genuine effort to improve the environmental performance of palm oil. RSPO members have dismissed these charges but concede that the certification process is still evolving. Related articles Limit palm oil development to lands that store less than 40 tons of carbon/ha - study (08/06/2009) A new study finds oil palm plantations store less carbon than previously believed, suggesting that palm oil produced through the conversion of tropical forests carries a substantial carbon debt. Biofuels can reduce emissions, but not when grown in place of rainforests (07/22/2008) Biofuels meant to help alleviate greenhouse gas emissions may be in fact contributing to climate change when grown on converted tropical forest lands, warns a comprehensive study published earlier this month in the journal Environmental Research Letters. Analyzing the carbon debt for biofuel crops grown in ecosystems around the world, Holly Gibbs and colleagues report that "while expansion of biofuels into productive tropical ecosystems will always lead to net carbon emissions for decades to centuries... [expansion] into degraded or already cultivated land will provide almost immediate carbon savings." The results suggest that under the right conditions, biofuels could be part of the effort to reduce humanity's carbon footprint. Oil palm does not store more carbon than forests 
(11/08/2007) Officials from the Indonesian ministry of agriculture and the palm oil industry are distributing materials that misrepresent the carbon balance oil palm plantations, according to accounts from people who have seen presentations by members of the Indonesian Palm Oil Commission. Ministry of agricultural officials are apparently arguing that oil palm plantations store and sequester many times the amount of CO2 as natural forests and therefore converting forests for plantations is the best way to fight climate change. In making such claims, these Indonesian officials are ignoring data that show the opposite, putting the credibility of the oil palm industry at risk, and undermining efforts to slow deforestation and reign in greenhouse gas emissions.
Tags: rspo green environment palm oil greenhouse gas emissions agriculture deforestation asia rainforests forests peatlands forestry plantations certification Environmental news index | RSS | News Feed | Twitter | Home Advertisements:
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