Step 1. Environmental Issue

From palm oil to your palm...

It is quiet confusing for me to choose the topic of what to write in this blog as I have to write at least 9 contemporary environmental case related to IEM. My previous 3 postings are all about IEM theories which are boring (as my lecturer said) and actually, I’m bored with those too! However, thanks Ken for the feedback that makes me struggle to be more creative. Anyway, after had an inspiring discussion with my smart husband (because he gave me this idea, thanks honey!), and spent some times searching on the internet, my choice finally goes to palm oil. Why palm oil? Is it because I’m from Indonesia where 90% of the world’s palm oil comes from? Maybe.. but, even me still don’t know what actually happen with palm oil industry in my country. In this blog, I try to analyse palm oil phenomenon from IEM perspective and I expect to get clear conclusion about what’s going on and what can be done in relation with IEM. Have you known that palm oil plantation comes from pristine forest burning? Figure 1 shows how forest has been cleared by burning for palm oil plantation.    

 
 

Figure 1. Forest burning

Figure 1. Forest burning

Why should burn the forest? Yeah, simple answer, because it is the easiest and the cheapest way to clear land. Figure 2 shows deforestation from forest burning which is not many people may know about this environmental destruction in the middle of nowhere.

Figure 2. Deforestation for palm oil plantation

 
Well, let’s start this topic with some questions. Have you ever thought about what you use from the time you wake up until you sleep? What’s in your food? What’s in your soap? It is palm oil. From cereal and ice cream into soap and cosmetic, all use palm oil. You (including me) consume palm oil every day. There are a lot of products in supermarket that use palm oil in their ingredients and more than 50% of products in the world use palm oil and its derivatives (King, n.d.). Some items showed in Figure 1 are the example of palm oil products. If you want to see a list of more than 300 brands and companies that use palm oil in their products please click here.

 

Figure 3. Palm oil products (Source: http://www.forestjustice.org/palmbreak/)

The next question is where does palm oil come from? The answer is of course from palm trees. But how does it touch your palm? The process of palm oil refinery in factory may be common to some people. The process that many people may not know is from palm oil plantation. About 90% of the world’s palm oil supply comes from Indonesia and Malaysia (RAN, n.d.). US’ palm oil import has soared 485% in the last decade which means that US company has been the largest importer of palm oil from Indonesia (RAN, n.d.). No wonder that most of palm oil plantation in Indonesia also own by US companies and their business chains. I will focus this palm oil case in Indonesia only to limit the scope of the problem in order to find the appropriate solution which may be different with other countries. There is short video about a company which has been accused as environmental destruction by using palm oil in its product.

Then, it is widely known that palm oil plantation has cause environment destruction as well as has improved (some) people’s life. The next question are which environment that has been destroyed and whose life that has been improved? What is the root of palm oil problem in Indonesia? Why it is so problematic that rise many pros and cons about it? In this step I try to identify the advantages and disadvantages of palm oil plantation as there have been pros and cons about it. Table 1 provides a brief description about it.

Table 1. The Losses and benefits of palm oil business

Advantages	Disadvantages
Cheap	Rainforest destruction/ deforestation
Efficient in production	Endangered species
Easy to cultivate	Loss of biodiversity
Highly yield	Human rights violation
Highly stable when used	Endangered indigenous people livelihood
Improved some people life (palm oil business chain)	Increase local people poverty
	Water pollution
	Greenhouse gas emissions

Source: Modified from http://ran.org/problem-palm-oil-factsheet

Honestly, I couldn’t think of any advantages of palm oil anymore even I found that many sources say the benefits of palm oil. I think that palm oil plantation and its business chains have more disadvantages not only to environment but also to social and economic of local people, much more than some people who get benefit from this business.

At this step, we know that there is a serious environmental problem as a result from palm oil plantation and its links. We can assess palm oil problem from IEM perspective in regards with triple bottom line: environment, social, and economy. It is likely that there is lack of consideration of triple bottom line (TBL) aspects. Furthermore, I even think that there is lack of quadruple bottom line, add one more aspect of TBL: cultural. The reason is because palm oil plantation in Indonesia often use land owned by indigenous people without their agreement. It adds to a more complex situation of palm oil problem.  Figure 2 shows how quadruple bottom line links each other. 

Figure 4 Quadruple Bottom line

http://lgam.wikidot.com/quadruple-bottom-line

The quadruple bottom line is an important consideration in assessing an issue in regards with IEM. It implicates a comprehensive view of IEM. In the next posts, I will move to the second step of IEM framework on problem definition.

References

King, T. (n.d.).   Retrieved 19 September 2013, from http://www.saynotopalmoil.com/palm-oil.php

RAN. (n.d.). The Case Againts Palm Oil: A Fact Sheet.  Retrieved 18 September 2013, from RAN (Rainforest Action Network) www.RAN.org

Picture retrieved 19 September 2013 from http://www.forestjustice.org/palmbreak/