The truth about oil palms and carbon sinks

Abstract

FORESTS are often called “the lungs of the world” — huge carbon sinks absorbing carbon dioxide emitted by the industrialised world, and producing the oxygen we need to breathe. At the same time, agriculture is seen as “polluting” in the sense that land clearing and development release greenhouse gas into the atmosphere, contributing to global warming. Environmental organisations such as Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and Wetlands International as well as their local affiliates take this view further by lobbying for a moratorium on planting oil palm on peat soil and the imposition of greenhouse gas criteria on palm oil exports. In 2007, Wetlands and the Netherlands-based consultancy Alterra issued a report titled PEAT-CO2 assessment of CO2 emissions from drained peatlands in southeast Asia alleging the region’s peatlands are going up in smoke, emitting tonnes of carbon dioxide and causing global warming.