Evaluating the effectiveness of palm oil certification in delivering multiple sustainability objectives

Morgans, Courtney; Meijaard, Erik; Santika, Truly; Law, Elizabeth A.; Budiharta, Sugeng; Ancrenaz, Marc; Wilson, Kerrie A.

doi:10.1088/1748-9326/aac6f4

Cited by 106 publications

(75 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…Certified plantations have reduced deforestation compared to non-certified plantations, although certified plantations are generally older and with little forested area remaining . They also have higher profits and yields than non-certified plantations but were not found to have a significant impact on conserving orangutan populations (Morgans et al 2018). Generally, RSPO certified oil palm plantations exhibit more sustainable practices than non-certified oil palm plantations, but faster adoption of RSPO certification on oil palm plantations will be needed considering the vast majority of palm oil is still produced using conventional practices.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Peeling back the label—exploring sustainable palm oil ecolabelling and consumption in the United Kingdom

Ostfeld

Howarth

Reiner

et al. 2019

Environ. Res. Lett.

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Palm oil production has been linked to deforestation, biodiversity loss, and climate change. We explore consumer awareness of palm oil, perceptions of its environmental impact, recognition of ecolabels including the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) ecolabel, and inclusion or avoidance of ecolabels in household shopping using a representative sample of the British population. We find consumer awareness of palm oil to be fairly high (77%), with 41% of those aware of palm oil perceiving it as 'environmentally unfriendly', more than double the level of any other vegetable oil examined. However, recognition of the RSPO ecolabel is the same as those who 'recognize' a fictitious ecolabel, making recognition indistinguishable from zero. Based on our logistic regression analysis, members of the British population most likely to actively include ecolabelled products in their weekly household shopping are those who are female, from higher socioeconomic groups, spend more than £120 per week on household shopping, and have received a Bachelors degree or higher. Despite clear benefits of environmental certification and ecolabelling, a relatively niche segment of the general population actively includes ecolabelled products in their weekly household shopping. Therefore, we recommend current policies be amended to require companies to source 100% identity preserved certified palm oil that can be traced to the plantation level to avoid having to rely on consumer decisions to enable a shift towards more responsibly-sourced palm oil. Additionally, requiring multinational companies to map and publicly disclose full supply chain information for all global operations, including palm oil suppliers and concessions, could help illuminate and discourage unsustainable practices.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Peeling back the label—exploring sustainable palm oil ecolabelling and consumption in the United Kingdom

Ostfeld

Howarth

Reiner

et al. 2019

Environ. Res. Lett.

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“…Unlike the literature on the environmental impacts of oil palm development, which contains various studies using counterfactual-based designs (e.g., Carlson et al, 2018;Morgans et al, 2018), our knowledge of local-scale social welfare is primarily based on case studies (for exceptions see Alwarritzi et al, 2015;Euler et al, 2017;Krishna et al, 2017). Such case studies can provide compelling evidence of negative consequences, for example, from conflicts over land rights,…”

Section: Some Human Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…At the same time, not every complaint and demand for compensation is necessarily valid and, when evidence is lacking or contested, who believes who, often follows pre-existing allegiances. The benefits available from oil palm development likely depend much on the local context, such as variation between companies in how they engage with communities (Persch-Orth and Mwangi, 2016;Baudoin et al, 2017;Morgans et al, 2018). For example, free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) from local community members prior to oil palm development is a requirement for palm oil certification under the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) scheme.…”

Section: Destroys Traditional Livelihoodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…All these advances have their critics, and some are undoubtedly justified. For example, the RSPO may eliminate some of the very worst practices, but evidence for social and environmental benefits remains limited Morgans et al, 2018) and standards can be portrayed rather as a public relations tool designed to help defend the industry from criticisms (EIA, 2015). Such processes have little power to prevent growers and processors from illicitly gaining certification (Dauvergne, 2018).…”

Section: Biofuels a Crime Against Humanity?mentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Moral Minefield of Ethical Oil Palm and Sustainable Development

Meijaard

Sheil

2019

Front. For. Glob. Change

Self Cite

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“…For example, it has been suggested that a relative increase in palm oil production, leading to a lower price of vegetable oil, may ultimately increase total vegetable oil demand and thereby incentivise further land conversion 13,35 . However, such rebound effects are not inevitable; policy options that can allow them to be overcome include zoning land for oil crop production and for conservation, creating economic incentives such as land taxes and subsidies, and promoting robust certification standards 23,36 .…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The environmental impacts of palm oil and its alternatives

et al. 2020

Preprint

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The destruction of ecosystems for vegetable oil production represents a major cause of global biodiversity loss and greenhouse gas emissions 1. Over the last two decades, oil palm, in particular, has caused societal concern due to its high impacts on biodiverse and carbon-dense tropical rainforests 2–8, leading to calls to source vegetable oils from alternative oil-producing crops. However, given the high yields of oil palm, how does that damage compare with other oil crops that require more land? Here, we estimate the carbon and biodiversity footprints, per unit of oil produced, of the world’s five major vegetable oil crops. We find that oil palm has the lowest carbon loss and species richness loss per-tonne-oil, but has a larger impact on range-restricted species than sunflower and rapeseed. We go on to identify global areas for oil crop expansion that will minimise future carbon and biodiversity impacts, and argue that closing current yield gaps and optimising the location of future growing areas will be much more effective at reducing future environmental impacts of global vegetable oil production than substituting any one crop for another.

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Evaluating the effectiveness of palm oil certification in delivering multiple sustainability objectives

Cited by 106 publications

References 47 publications

Peeling back the label—exploring sustainable palm oil ecolabelling and consumption in the United Kingdom

Peeling back the label—exploring sustainable palm oil ecolabelling and consumption in the United Kingdom

The Moral Minefield of Ethical Oil Palm and Sustainable Development

The environmental impacts of palm oil and its alternatives

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