The Moral Minefield of Ethical Oil Palm and Sustainable Development

Meijaard, Erik; Sheil, Douglas

doi:10.3389/ffgc.2019.00022

Cited by 71 publications

(59 citation statements)

References 76 publications

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“…The occurrence of fire in Indonesia is influenced both by climate [4,5] and by extensive land-cover change [6]. There is an urgent need to better understand how agricultural and plantation management can be altered to minimize fire and associated environmental impacts [7,8]. Here we analyze twelve years of data on the occurrence of fire and data on tree cover loss to better understand links between fire and land-cover change in Riau Province, Indonesia.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relationship Between Fire and Forest Cover Loss in Riau Province, Indonesia Between 2001 and 2012

Adrianto

Spracklen

Arnold

2019

Forests

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Forest and peatland fires occur regularly across Indonesia, resulting in large greenhouse gas emissions and causing major air quality issues. Over the last few decades, Indonesia has also experienced extensive forest loss and conversion of natural forest to oil palm and timber plantations. Here we used data on fire hotspots and tree-cover loss, as well as information on the extent of peat land, protected areas, and concessions to explore spatial and temporal relationships among forest, forest loss, and fire frequency. We focus on the Riau Province in Central Sumatra, one of the most active regions of fire in Indonesia. We find strong relationships between forest loss and fire at the local scale. Regions with forest loss experienced six times as many fire hotspots compared to regions with no forest loss. Forest loss and maximum fire frequency occurred within the same year, or one year apart, in 70% of the 1 km2 cells experiencing both forest loss and fire. Frequency of fire was lower both before and after forest loss, suggesting that most fire is associated with the forest loss process. On peat soils, fire frequency was a factor 10 to 100 lower in protected areas and natural forest logging concessions compared to oil palm and wood fiber (timber) concessions. Efforts to reduce fire need to address the underlying role of land-use and land-cover change in the occurrence of fire. Increased support for protected areas and natural forest logging concessions and restoration of degraded peatlands may reduce future fire risk. During times of high fire risk, fire suppression resources should be targeted to regions that are experiencing recent forest loss, as these regions are most likely to experience fire.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relationship Between Fire and Forest Cover Loss in Riau Province, Indonesia Between 2001 and 2012

Adrianto

Spracklen

Arnold

2019

Forests

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“…Ancrenaz, Meijaard et al, ). Such efforts are, moreover, shaped by increasingly politicized, and polarized, invocations of palm oil (Meijaard & Sheil, , p. 2) as either a major environmental villain (Chua, ) or a national asset that will reduce poverty and usher in a new era of development and prosperity (see, e.g., Malaysia's Sayangi Sawitku (Love my/MY [Malaysia] Palm Oil) campaign, https://lovemypalmoil.com.my/).…”

Section: Key Concerns and Challenges: A Synthetic Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This emotive injunction, however, glossed over numerous ecological and socio‐economic complexities in oil palm‐growing contexts (e.g. Meijaard, Morgans, Msi, Abram, & Ancrenaz, ; Meijaard & Sheil, ), undermining many orangutan organizations' stance—to advocate for sustainability in the palm oil industry rather than a total boycott.…”

Section: Current Developments In Orangutan Conservation: a State‐of‐tmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, ‘sustainability’ has become a proxy in recent engagements between certain orangutan conservation organizations and oil palm corporations, standing for and encapsulating the former's concern with saving orangutans (e.g. by reducing deforestation and securing protected areas and corridors) and the latter's concern with corporate image and market access (see, e.g., Ancrenaz, Meijaard et al, ; Meijaard & Sheil, , p. 10). In theory, at least, these engagements—fuelled by consumer demands for and regulations surrounding ‘sustainable’ palm oil—have opened up new possibilities for orangutan conservation that might otherwise not have existed.…”

Section: Moving Forwardmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Such a move, however, is inevitably risky and must be undertaken with caution. ‘Sustainable’ palm oil still presents problems and complications in reality (Ancrenaz, Meijaard et al, ; Chao, ; Meijaard et al, ; Meijaard & Sheil, ). And as Rubis and Theriault (, pp.…”

Section: Moving Forwardmentioning

confidence: 99%

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et al. 2020

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Interactions between conservation and the social sciences are frequently characterized by either critique (of conservation by social scientists) or co‐optation (of social scientific methods and insights by conservationists). This article seeks to push beyond these two dominant positions by exploring how conservationists and social scientists can engage in mutually transformative dialogue. Jointly authored by conservation scientists and social scientists, it uses the global nexus of orangutan conservation as a lens onto current challenges and possibilities facing the conservation–social science relationship. We begin with a cross‐disciplinary overview of recent developments in orangutan conservation—particularly those concerned with its social, political and other human dimensions. The article then undertakes a synthetic analysis of key challenges in orangutan conservation—working across difference, juggling scales and contexts and dealing with politics and political economy—and links them to analogous concerns in the conservation–social science relationship. Finally, we identify some ways by which orangutan conservation specifically, and the conservation–social science relationship more generally, can move forward: through careful use of proxies as bridging devices, through the creation of new, shared spaces, and through a willingness to destabilize and overhaul status quos. This demands an open‐ended, unavoidably political commitment to critical reflexivity and self‐transformation on the part of both conservationists and social scientists. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.

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Mapping social impacts of agricultural commodity trade onto the sustainable development goals

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Dreoni

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et al. 2023

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While international trade in agricultural commodities can spur economic development especially where governance is strong, there are also concerns about the local impacts of commodity production and their distribution on the environment and on people. The sustainable development goals (SDGs), though seeing trade as a means to support their achievement, recognise the need to address potential negative social and environmental impacts. It is therefore important to assess the contribution of international trade to the SDGs in commodity production areas. The environmental impacts of commodity production are widely acknowledged, but much less is known about its social impacts, and how this affects poverty reduction objectives across different dimensions. Impacts on human wellbeing and equity depend on a multitude of factors, including resources, systemic conditions and outputs of production. Through a broad literature review on soy, coffee, cocoa and palm oil, we show how studies

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The Moral Minefield of Ethical Oil Palm and Sustainable Development

Cited by 71 publications

References 76 publications

Relationship Between Fire and Forest Cover Loss in Riau Province, Indonesia Between 2001 and 2012

Relationship Between Fire and Forest Cover Loss in Riau Province, Indonesia Between 2001 and 2012

Conservation and the social sciences: Beyond critique and co‐optation. A case study from orangutan conservation

Mapping social impacts of agricultural commodity trade onto the sustainable development goals

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