The keys to reduce environmental impacts of palm oil

Oil palm is largely criticised for its impact on the environment. According to Life Cycle Assessment studies, the agricultural stage proved to be a major contributor to most of the potential environmental impacts, notably global warming, eutrophication and acidification. Focusing on global warming impact, main contributors are land use change and peat cultivation, N-related GHG emissions from fertilisers and residues in the plantation and methane emissions from palm oil mill effluent (POME) treatment. Impact from POME can be drastically reduced if POME is used for composting or if the biogas from anaerobic treatment is captured with electricity recovery. However, the impact from the plantation establishment becomes overwhelming when forests or peatland areas are converted to palm plantations. Oil palm plantations have significantly driven deforestation in Indonesia, together with logging and mining. It remains the most important agricultural driver despite the governmental moratorium and the certification schemes in place since 2011 and 2007; respectively. In order to protect primary forests and peatlands, which is absolutely mandatory to avoid irreversible carbon and biodiversity losses, it is paramount to define a sustainable land planning at national and landscape levels, as well as to implement agroecological practices in the plantations in order to sustainably increase yields and limit further land clearing