Palm oil is a common ingredient in a wide range of consumer good products found in India.
However, the use of this vegetable oil is linked to global warming and to the loss of some of the most fragile tropical rainforests.
How can Indian companies be part of the solution and ensure they have access to a supply of sustainable palm oil well into the future?
Malaysian scientists now have the ability to trace for high oil-yielding genes in the palm oil plant, allowing them to create “designer palms” with the capacity to control the amount and type of oil being produced.
European Union (EU) demand for supposedly green-friendly fuels, such as palm oil, is coming at a high social and environmental cost in Asia, warns a new report released Tuesday by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
The U.N. agency cautioned countries in the region against following the lead taken by Indonesia and Malaysia, the main producers of palm oil as a biofuel, in its annual ‘Human Development Report 2007/2008’.
The World Bank has agreed to suspend International Finance Corporation (IFC) funding of the oil palm sector pending the development of safeguards to ensure that lending doesn't cause social or environmental harm, according to a letter by World Bank President Robert Zoellick to NGOs.
Demand for the versatile vegetable oil, which is used in everything from chocolate to soap and is even now deployed as a biofuel, is increasing steeply even despite falling commodity prices. However, as the plantations have encroached ever deeper into the jungles of Malaysia and Indonesia – which between them produce more than 85 percent of the world’s palm oil – concerns about the environmental and social consequences have grown.