By Saiful Bahri Kamaruddin
Pix Abd Ra’ai Osman

BANGI, 6 May 2016 –  There is no need for Malaysia and other Palm Oil producing nations to increase the size of plantations by clearing out forests, says a researcher in sustainable food production and globalisation Prof Ir Dr Peter Oosterveer.

He said the production of palm oil by Malaysia and other countries in South-East Asia is steadily rising and at 34% of consumption, it is already the most widely used vegetable oil in the world.

“It is more a matter of sustainable production through improving yield and better management of plantations,” he said in his public lecture titled ‘Governance, Sustainability and Globalization’  organised by the Faculty of Economics and Management, The National University of Malaysia (UKM), here today.

Her pointed out that a fractional increase in size of estates is enough, since oil palm trees have very long life cycles and produce oil in much larger quantities compared to soya bean and maize – the two main competitors to palm oil.

Europe and the United States, he pointed out, tend to be biased against palm oil and have demanded it be certified sustainable by independent research organisations, especially the stamp of approval issued by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).

Any report of palm oil producers clearing forests to increase plantation acreage  would only aggravate the situation and western consumer nations might slap a quota – or even ban palm oil outright.

Furthermore, he said research showed that planting more oil palm trees also means increasing pollution, which would make the industry less sustainable.

Nevertheless, he admitted that even certification has limited influence as the demand of strict compliance among consumer countries do differ.

He proposed that the world’s food production, including palm oil, be governed by a global single set of rules to ensure there is enough of it in the longer term, as sustainable food is increasingly a global matter.

He said something needs to be done to make food production more sustainable because the demand of some vital staples is outstripping supply.