Clearing the haze around palm oil

I live in Malaysia and can attest that the 2015 haze is the worst I have experienced in my 5 years here. I wouldn’t be surprised if it where the worst on record, based on the apocalyptic images and news streaming out of Indonesia’s Sumatra, Kalimantan and Sulawesi provinces. The ancient, fragile and wonderfully-rich jungles there are set ablaze to grow oil palm, we are told (oil palm is the tree that produces palm oil). This is a catastrophe on a truly gigantic scale. How big a deal is it? Well, for one it kills people, children especially. And the raging fires burn alive and turn to ashes every living thing in their path. Why should you care if the haze doesn’t close your children’s schools, fill your skies, your eyes and your lungs with ash, why should you care if your economy is not visibly affected right? Well, when The Guardian writes that "Indonesia fires emit more emissions in one day than the entire US economy", I think we can agree that this concerns us all. You help the planet by not using plastic bags on Saturday? Good on you. But if we do not methodically work to stop this imbecile practice of burning the jungles and their wealth – and if the consequences are of the magnitude highlighted by The Guardian – none of this will count. This is really one area where size matters.

This author argues that none of this has to be, that too much is at stake, that blind boycott of palm oil is neither sustainable nor attainable, that a problem of this magnitude on a globally-vital resource must be dealt with at the international level - and that we cannot turn our head away when our common natural wealth is devastated and the future of coming generations goes up in smoke. This is what I wrote about the haze and fires on social media a few days ago: “In my opinion, this is a crime against our common wealth - humans, animals, ecosystems. It is a crime against ecology, the economy, and, yes, humanity, let's not shy from it. If the UN is worth its name, the culprits must be identified and severally punished. And by that I don't mean the poor guys who get paid a bag of rancid peanuts to start the fires that benefit the robber barons sitting in Indonesia AND in other countries in the region - who knows, around the world. This yearly non-sense has got to stop. What is ASEAN doing apart from talking? This is a massive recurring horror, we know where it happens and nothing meaningful is done to put an end to it once and for all. (…) It's a crime pure and simple and the fires are not started by tigers, orang-utans or some angry spirits on a high peak.”

At stake

I want my children to know that somewhere in the world not only exist but thrive wonderful jungle ecosystems, inhabited by healthy communities and harbouring a wealth beyond our wildest dreams. And I want them to see the fruits of an economy creating value from knowledge and harmony with nature, rather than suffer the mathematical consequences of our current brutish extraction and consumption of raw materials. This is not some hippy rant. As brilliantly highlighted by Idriss Aberkane – UNESCO ambassador, thinker and technologist – the way we still generate wealth is akin to throwing books into a chimney to warm ourselves. The books are the fantastic treasures that nature harbours, on a scale and of a quality that defies imagination. Smart companies have already stopped burning the books and jumped into biomimetics – defined as “the imitation of the models, systems, and elements of nature for the purpose of solving complex human problems” – with stupendous results. Remember the banned Speedo swimsuits? They are so good because their structure mimics that of shark skin. For swim records as for just about any need we may have, there is an amazing, energy efficient, totally sustainable answer in the natural world… provided we don’t burn the natural books. There is truly so much to learn from the living, and we still know the surface of Mars and Moon better than our own Earth life-support system. And as Aberkane further shows, nature is high-tech to a point we have no idea of and cannot start to surpass. Truly jaw dropping – and super exciting stuff. So yes, to paraphrase the film The Martian: “We are going to have to science the sh… out of this.” I must admit, this gets me super excited because it is a message of hope and a call to rethink our relationship to everything that keeps us alive and happy.

Big data

Let’s go back to palm oil. And clarify its vital importance for humanity and the world economy. For this, I will cite information featured in a fascinating presentation made by Dato’ Carl Bek-Nielsen at POC 2012 in Kuala Lumpur, titled: “Challenges and opportunities for the palm oil industry.”

So according to the FAO figures included in that document:

• “World population grows by about 80 million people a year. Or about 220,000 new mouths to feed every day;
• By the end of 2011, some 950 million people went to sleep hungry. And about 5 million children died of hunger – more than the number of children born yearly in England, Germany, France, Italy and Spain combined;
• According to FAO, “the world will need to double food production by 2050 in order to ensure adequate food supplies for a world population expected to reach 9.3 billion.”

This puts agriculture under pressure, to say the least. Explains Bek-Nielsen:

• “In 1960, it took 1 hectare of arable land to support 2.4 people. By 1995, this figure had increased to 4.5 people. By 2050… each hectare of arable land will need to support 6.1 to 6.4 people;
• 98% of all food comes from land. 15 crops provide roughly 90% of the calories consumed by humans;
• Globally, 1.5 billion hectares of land is used for agriculture;
• The oil palm occupies UNDER 1% of this area… to produce over 30% of the world’s oils and fats.”

So the land surface equivalent of Hungary and Slovakia is planted in oil palm to produce over 30% of the world’s oils and fats. No other source comes close to this ratio. Now, let’s look at social changes:

• “The World Bank predicts that by 2030 the number of middle class people in the developing world will be 1.2 billion – a 200% rise since 2005. This in turn impacts on the demand for oils and fats, as those are necessary not just for food but also for a wide variety of products;
• According to FAO, 40 out of every 100 additional calories in the period up to 2030 may well come from oil-crops or their products. Already in the last 10 years, consumption of oils and fats has increased by 59 million metric tons.”

Now, here’s how the trusted oil palm ranks against other main oil-crops (2011 figures):

• Soybean: uses 333 million hectares to generate 23.2% of the world’s oil and fat;
• Rapeseed: uses 217 million hectares to output 13.1% of the world’s oil and fat;
• Oil palm: uses 36.5 million hectares to produce over 30% of the world’s oil and fat

Again, the rational best choice is clearly apparent. The oil palm uses almost 10 times less land to produce about 10% more oil than soybean. And as an added bonus, the oil palm is so sturdy and productive that it doesn’t need the kind of genetic modifications that scare many when it comes to soy, to name just one.

The inescapable fact is that we depend on oil palm to feed ourselves and our industries. Yet we often default to false-good-ideas (“boycott palm oil”) and/or kick the problem sideways to Indonesia (now the world’s largest producer). This is a global problem because it touches on a globally-vital resource – and it therefore calls for a global systematic tackling and sorting out. Howling with the crowds or hiding our head in the sand just plays too nicely into the hands of the criminal robber barons. More sustainable and constructive approaches can be defined. But first, let’s travel to my birthplace: Cote d’Ivoire, in Africa.

A different oil palm development model

Before moving to Malaysia about 5 years ago, I was corporate communication director for SIFCA, Africa’s largest private oil palm growing and processing group, based in Abidjan (Cote d’Ivoire). Heck, as a kid, I did play in and around palm plantations quite a few times. In fact, Cote d’Ivoire and the oil palm go way back. First, because red palm oil has been part of local cuisine for eons. Furthermore, the variety now most planted around the world (elaeis guineensis) was developed here back in the 1950s - if memory serves. Here’s an excerpt of a text I wrote some time ago to explain how the Cote d’Ivoire model of oil palm production works and why palm oil is vital to Africa’s billion-plus population.

“More sustainable oil palm development models do exist that balance environmental and socioeconomic requirements. Such is arguably the case of Cote d’Ivoire’s oil palm sector. Cote d’Ivoire features some 200,000 hectares of oil palm, including 50,000 hectares of industrial plantations. While the latter were originally planted over existing forest, their total surface represents a minute 1.6% of the estimated 12 million hectares of forest cleared by wood logging, population growth and slash-and-burn techniques. As for oil palm village plantations, they predominantly grow on fallows resulting from the disappearance of the forest, thereby stabilizing the soil. (…) And as in the case of olive oil, crude palm oil is simply pressed out of the fruits, without chemical auxiliaries. Lastly, leftovers resulting from oil extraction are recycled into energy within industrial plants, while other by-products act as fertilizers for the nurseries and plantations. (…) In Cote d’Ivoire, over 36,000 oil palm outgrowers work their own land to supply 75% of the bunches processed. (…) Depending on purchase prices, an oil palm outgrower can earn a balanced and regular income over a long period of time. Indeed, properly cared-for oil palm trees produce all year long for up to 25 years. The money comes in handy to pay for the family’s health costs and cover part of schooling expenses. Additionally, oil palm generates stable jobs, in a West African region that creates too few still. It also slows down the exodus to the cities by fostering local businesses in production areas. Lastly, the plantation companies play an important role alongside outgrowers. They make high-yield seedlings and fertilizers available; they contribute to training and the adoption of good farming practices; they pay cash for palm bunches; and they supply essential infrastructure such as schools, health centres, running water, electricity, sanitation, roads, bridges, etc. The plantation companies originate in Cote d’Ivoire. (…) Cote d’Ivoire’s oil palm industry is West Africa’s only reliable and abundant source of edible oil. With its 2.3% population growth – meaning an extra 4 million mouths to feed yearly – West Africa experiences food shortages, especially in the field of edible oil: 150,000 tons for WAEMU; 800,000 tons for ECOWAS. (…) Oil palm therefore is the smart choice for sustainable development and food security in West Africa.”

Clearing the haze

Interestingly, the system in use in Cote d’Ivoire resonates with Bek-Nielsen’s further words, when he writes: ?Due to its high oil output to land ratio via-a-vis other vegetable crops, the oil palm has the opportunity to take ‘center stage’. HOWEVER, this position can only be attained respectfully if all future and current production complies with the essentials of sustainability”.

Sustainability is achieved we know when 3 categories of needs are satisfied: social needs, environmental needs and economic needs. What does this mean? That we must put our actions where our mouths are. That we must look reality in the face and accept that only when communities, natural ecosystems and business interests meet can a constructive dialogue take place. Progress will not come from outbursts of emotion, because the forces at work demand that we think more pragmatically. Thousands upon thousands of communities and families live from the oil palm. They are human, like us, they want something better for their children, and they need to earn a living. Our environment has its rights too, and in my opinion the environment is not the property of country X or Z. In a globalized world, we should by now realize that no country is an island, that we are interconnected, and that the crimes against sustainability perpetrated yearly in Indonesia concern us all.

Speaking of crimes, the order-givers for this jungle burning are people. Let’s call them Robber Barons & Acolytes. They belong to a chain of command. They can therefore be identified and punished. Helping communities with class-action suits is also a proven technique to get things moving in a better direction. Money talks, BS walks they say. So let’s hit the culprits – not the commodity, the communities or the country – where it hurts. Environmental crime against future generations, here’s the new charge to enforce.

Also, because this is a global threat to our common wealth – social, economic and environmental – I would like to see an army of drones patrol the skies over the jungles of Indonesia. How did this disaster get to such a size before anyone sent even a water plane? Shame on us all. We have the technology to do this – currently mostly used in combat – so we can make it happen.

On the economic front, sustainable palm oil exists, and is available in vast quantities. Not enough to cover world demand yet, but supply and demand could gradually sort that out. But guess what? It is not purchased enough because it costs more than non-sustainable palm oil. Entities such as the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and Green Palm are active in this area, but we need to put our brain where our mouth is to take it to next level. It is not effective – borderline infantile – to call for the boycott of palm oil. The same people will then cry about poverty in the world… What seems much more productive is to lobby hard for the exclusive use of sustainable palm oil. We have the internet to inform ourselves, so let’s do that. Palm oil is NOT the culprit. Human greed and apathy are. One interesting question: why is non-sustainable palm oil cheaper? The answer is written in giant bellowing clouds of haze.

I will leave you with one last bit of science: the oil palm is a perennial plant. Every year, each hectare of adult oil palm trees converts 44 tons of carbon-dioxide into biomass.
Peace.