World’s Largest Palm Oil Company Commits to Zero Deforestation

“During the past few decades, the oil palm has become one of the most rapidly expanding equatorial crops in the world.  Oil palms are now grown in 43 countries and their total cultivated area accounts for nearly one-tenth of the world’s permanent cropland.”

For those concerned about the climate, this is a big deal.  Palm oil growth has caused major deforestation in Malaysia and Indonesia, where more than half of the crop’s expansion since 1990 has taken place.  Not only can the expansion lead to the loss of forestland, which acts as a carbon sink, but it can also uproot carbon-rich peatlands, thus releasing large amounts of carbon into the atmosphere.

Environmentalist and human rights groups have been pressuring palm oil producers to clean up their act for some time.  A few companies, including Nestlé, have pledged to use more sustainable palm oil practices and avoid harming old-growth forests.  But on Thursday the biggest development yet took place when Wilmar, the world’s largest palm oil company, signed a landmark policy committing it to eliminating deforestation from its supply chain, among other things.

World’s Largest Palm Oil Company Commits to Zero Deforestation