Palm oil and the destruction of vital ecosystems
Palm oil plantations are expanding into the planet’s most biodiverse ecosystems, including rainforests, grasslands and peat swamps in South America, Southeast Asia, the Pacific and Africa. These regions are home to millions of plant and animal species, including highly endangered orangutans, clouded leopards, and sun bears.
Palm oil contributes to global climate change
Transforming ecosystems into monocultural oil palm plantations contributes heavily to climate change. Rainforests are clear-cut and burned, and carbon-rich peat swamps are drained and burned. Deforestation accounts for a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions and is the primary reason that Indonesia and Brazil are now the world’s third and fourth largest greenhouse gas polluters.
Palm oil results in the displacement of Indigenous people and small family farmers
The spread of massive palm oil plantations often violates traditional and Indigenous land rights by forcing small family farmers to shift from subsistence to export-driven commodity farming or pushing them off their land entirely.
Palm oil is produced through exploitative labor practices
Many palm oil-plantation workers face abuse, harsh working conditions, unfair pay, and exposure to toxic pesticides. In Papua New Guinea, a gendered system of palm oil harvest called the Mama Lus system pays women less and forces them into harder, more dangerous labor than their male counterparts.
