Life Cycle Analysis on the Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) Certification

Cluster Research Grant, 2020

Abstract

With the raising awareness of climate change and the strong resonance of sustainable development goal, the sustainability of palm oil industry has been highly disputable. Palm oil, as the main editable oil which contribute up to 35% of total consumption oil across the world does not only widely used as cooking oil, but also as ingredient for food products, cosmetic, animal feed, pharmaceutical and can be further to process to become bio-fuel, which can be served as energy. Furthermore, the production of palm oil also produces significant amount of oil palm biomass which can be further processed into different value-added products and served as sources for biomass energy. Nonetheless, the process and supply chain of the palm oil is often claimed to be unsustainable in the long term, both in term of economic and financial viability, environmental and social welfare. The clearing of tropical forest for oil palm plantation is asserted as the main factor that cause environmental deterioration and loss of biodiversity. Furthermore, lack of documentation on the terms of employer-employee relationship in the estate and infrastructure provided are often claimed as neglection of social welfare of labour and violation of human right. As one of the major producers of palm oil, Malaysia government has introduced sustainability certification for this industry, namely Malaysian Palm Oil Standard (MSPO). The main purpose of the certification is to mitigate and manage the sustainability issue associate with the palm oil supply chain. Nonetheless, the voluntarily adoption rate of MSPO is still relatively low, despite incentives and support are provided by the government. The economic, environmental, and social benefits of the adoption of MSPO in the early stage are vague and less emphasized.

Project Leader

Sue Lin Ngan (Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), suelin.ngan@ukm.edu.my)