Palm oil has become a sore spot on the biofuel landscape as it has caused deforestation and habitat loss in south-east Asia and West Africa.
Expansion
HECO will be getting its palm oil from Sime Darby, which Rainforest Rescue says is one of the world’s largest palm oil companies, with huge plantations in Malaysia and Indonesia and expansion plans to Indonesia and West Africa.
According to information on Sime Darby’s website, the company owns 530,987 hectares planted with palm oil in Malaysia and Indonesia and has “acquired a 63-year concession in Liberia to develop 220,000 hectares of land into oil palm and rubber estatesâ€.
The company supports the Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), an initiative started in 2004 to promote “the growth and use of sustainable oil palm products through credible global standards and engagement of stakeholders.â€
But it will be a steep climb for Sime Darby to convince environmentalists that it has cleaned up its act. A report published by Greenpeace in 2007 accuses the company of being directly involved in the destruction of rainforests and peatlands, including orang-utan habitat for palm oil. Greenpeace also accused the company of illegal forest clearing and breach of human rights
Rainforest Rescue says that despite all this, the Natural Resource Defense Council (NRDC) has allowed HECO to classify palm oil from Sime Darby as sustainable. The NGO adds: “Regardless of where HECO gets their palm oil from, more demand will, directly or indirectly, mean more plantation expansion and thus more deforestation, land conflicts and evictions.â€
Energy Refuge could not reach NRDC with a request for comment on the issue.
HECO versus Solar
HECO recently lost a battle it was fighting against solar companies in Hawaii as the company opposed to a newly-approved feed-in tariff program for solar projects of up to 500 kilowatts to sell power back to the grid. HECO had argued that added distributed resources could destabilize the islands’ power grids. Hawaii has the most ambitious clean energy mandate in the U.S. with a target of 40% by 2030.
Video
Watch a CNN report on palm oil and its attempt to clean up its image broadcast this week. Sincere efforts to be sustainable or just greenwashing? Share your view!
Around 90% of the global supply of palm oil comes from Indonesia and Malaysia, and this has come at a tremendous cost. The forests of Borneo and Sumatra are being burned to the ground– releasing so much carbon into the atmosphere that Indonesia now ranks only behind China and US in carbon emissions– and it is barely industrialized. The UNEP estimates that the forests of Indonesia are being cleared at a rate of 6 football fields per minute every minute of every day.
The palm oil industry is guilty of the most heinous ecological atrocities imaginable, including the systematic genocide of orangutans. The forests of Borneo and Sumatra are the only place where these gentle, intelligent creatures live, and the cultivation of palm oil has directly led to the brutal deaths of thousands of individuals as the industry has expanded into previously undisturbed areas of rainforest.
When the forest is cleared, adult orangutans are shot on sight. These peaceful, sentient beings are beaten, burned, mutilated, tortured and eaten. Babies are torn off their dying mothers so they can be sold on the black market as illegal pets to wealthy families who see them as status symbols of their own power and prestige. This has been documented time and again.
If nothing is done to protect orangutans, they will be extinct in just a few years. Does a progressive US State such as Hawaii really want to be contributing to this? Really?
What they don’t tell you is that Rainforest Rescue, a German corporation, is partially funded from donations by the Rapeseed industry, which is palm oil’s biggest competitor and a major crop grown in Europe – especially Germany.
This isn’t about Rainforests – Malaysia has laws in place mandating that 50% of its rainforests must be maintained. They have already reached that plateau years ago. Malaysia, a developing nation – has a right to use its natural resources to improve the GNP and lives of its citizens… just as German and Europeans did over the past 200 years as they cut down forests (and animal habitats) to make way for millions of hectares of rapeseed, which is now only a home to insects and lizards. At least the palm oil plantations with their huge trees and jungle like environment continue to provide home for many, many species of animals.