Towards sustainable palm oil : a framework for action

Palm oil, as the world’s leading type of vegetable oil, for which there is increasing demand for the production of food and fuel, is no exception. It is now increasingly recognized that stakeholders throughout the value chain, from policy makers, investors and growers to processors, retailers and civil society, have an important role to play in reconciling oil palm expansion with the conservation of biodiversity, maintenance of ecosystem services and socio-economic development. While it is becoming widely accepted that there is an urgent need to increase the sustainability of current practices relating to the production and use of palm oil, consensus has yet to be reached on how this can best be achieved. Towards this end, in May 2011 the Zoological Society of London, in collaboration with ProForest and the wildlife conservation society, convened a symposium entitled ‘sustainable palm oil: challenges, a common vision and the way forward’. The aim of this symposium was to bring together leading scientists, policy makers, companies and NGOs to present the latest science and discuss effective policies, tools and practice for increasing the sustainability of global palm oil production. Increasing recognition that the adverse environmental and social impacts associated with palm oil production are not sustainable, coupled with the initiation of efforts by a broad spectrum of stakeholders to address this over the last decade signifies an important turning point for the palm oil sector. Nevertheless, discussions over the course of the symposium highlighted many areas where further work is needed if environmentally and socially responsible production and consumption is to become synonymous with business as usual for the palm oil industry. For these issues to be addressed effectively, it is necessary for the stakeholders required to act to be convinced of the benefits of more sustainable production and consumption. Conviction of this must be nurtured by the governments, civil society organizations and businesses operating in each of the key regions of palm oil production and consumption, as this will be a much more powerful means of stimulating change than external pressure.