Is Palm Oil Produced in a Sustainable Manner?

Abstract

The most important aspect of any feedstock for industrial-scale production of polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) is market stability. One would expect the feedstock to be sustainable in terms of supply, cost and quality. In addition, recently, there is also growing concerns over the use of food-grade feedstock for making nonedible products such as fuel and material. Therefore, the selection of a feedstock for PHA production must take into consideration the effect on global food supply. This chapter presents the current scenario of the palm oil industry along with issues such as land management and conservation of biodiversity. In order to ensure the sustainability of PHA production from palm oil, several strate-gies are proposed. Keywords Biodiversity • Malaysia • Palm oil • Polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) • Sustainability • Spent cooking oil • Palm oil by-products Is palm oil currently or ever produced in a sustainable manner? This is often the question of many environmentalists and the concern of public. Most people are convinced that rapid expansion of oil palm plantation over the years has left irre-versible impacts on the environment including aspects such as land deforesta-tion, extinction of several indigenous species and peat land destruction (Tan et al. 2009). Nevertheless, stakeholders and the parties involved intimately in oil palm plantation and palm oil production are convinced that these criticisms are baseless and the real scenario has been exaggerated. The simplest definition of sustainability refers to the ability of mankind to reach their needs at present and at the same time not compromising the needs and capac-ity for future generations. Well-established oil palm plantations seem to meet these standards, with an exclusion that these plantations were done at the expense of deforestation. This act is deemed unsustainable, because destruction of pristine for-ests has permanent effect on the global ecosystem and future sustainability, thus, leading to the conclusion that deforestation is intolerable. Nevertheless, Robinson reviewed that in order for this present generation to meet their needs, agricultural developments are inevitable; and naturally for these activities to take place, land is needed (Robinson 2004).