The lush Indonesian rainforest cover is being stripped at an alarming rate for illegal logging and palm oil plantations due to demand for the commodity in India. Companies catering to domestic needs have failed to ensure clean and sustainable source of the cheap palm oil, resulting in the rapid destruction of the rainforest which is home to thousands of plant and animal species, a Greenpeace report has stated.
The report ‘Frying the forest – how India’s use of palm oil is having a devastating impact on Indonesia’s rainforests, tigers and the global climate’, was released recently in Mumbai.
“The issue is that India is the biggest importer of palm oil with imports of 7.2 million tonnes per year. As the world’s largest user of palm oil, India has an opportunity and a responsibility to ensure that its purchases of products such as palm oil are coming from responsible sources and aren’t linked to rainforest and peat land destruction, and the resulting climate-changing emissions,” Nandikesh Sivalingam, Greenpeace forest campaigner, said during the release of the report here.
Mr G. Chandrashekar, noted journalist, while releasing the report said that the world cannot survive without palm oil because it is a cheap source of calories, but neither can it afford to destroy its rainforests. He said it was time for oil-producing countries to follow strict rules and regulations to protect the rainforest.
“We need to take a balanced view. We have to address the health issues and generate employment. We need to do cost-benefit analysis. In this case, the social costs are higher than the economic benefits...Eventually, a carrot-and-stick policy will work. We have to think of a differential tariff regime for (supporting) sustainable palm oil,” he said.
Voluntary organisation Greenpeace accused Indian majors such as ITC, Godrej, and Ruchi Soya for failing to ensure clean source of the cheap oil. Palm oil is used in various products including edibles, cosmetics and soaps.
The report said that the destruction has put at stake millions of hectares of rainforest and peat land, which are the last-remaining habitat of the Sumatran tiger and the orang-utan.
“Because of such large-scale destruction, Indonesia has become the world’s third largest Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emitter, behind USA and China. Around 85 per cent of Indonesia’s GHG emissions come from deforestation,” Mr Sivalingam said.
He said that the organisation has approached the companies, but to no avail. “Despite our requests, no Indian company has so far made commitments to ensure that their palm oil and other supply chain components are not linked to deforestation. This poses a severe risk to their brands. Greenpeace is urging Indian companies using palm oil -- such as ITC, Britannia, Godrej and Parle -- to show true leadership, and demonstrate that their sustainability commitments are not empty promises,” he said.
He shared with The Hindu the copies of correspondence with companies such as Adani Wilmar, Emami, ITC, Godrej in the past one year. The companies either said that they are too small to impact the market or that sustainable products are still a distant goal.
Some of the companies replied to queries sent by The Hindu . ITC said that the company’s palm oil requirements are a fraction of the industry’s demand and that they do not have any bargaining capacity to make any difference to the suppliers.
“To the best of our knowledge, there is no supply chain in India which can guarantee that the refined oil procured is from Indonesia or Malaysia, leave alone traceability at an estate level. For small buyers including ITC who do not import directly, it is important that Indian refiners offer palm oil fractions with the option of being RSPO (Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil) certified,” ITC said in its response to The Hindu .
Despite repeated attempts, Godrej, Parle and Ruchi Soya failed to respond to the queries.
Greenpeace said that the companies claiming to do their bit for the environment should adopt time-bound zero-deforestation policy. “They should stop trading with Duta Palma and third party suppliers who do not rule out supply from Duta Palma. Duta Palma is one of the biggest companies destroying rainforest and peatland. RSPO’s standards are not strong enough. Its membership does not guarantee that palm oil producers are actually implementing its standards,” Wirendro Sumargo, a Greenpeace forest campaigner from Indonesia told The Hindu .
Mr Chandrashekar pointed out that the Indonesian government had added 2.5 million hectares of land under palm oil cultivation between 2005 and 2009. He said that the Indian government can do lot more to advance sustainability, but it needs to put its own house in order first.
“But the world is starved of vegetable oil. At least bottom 30 per cent of India needs to consume lots of calories. Palm oil is the cheapest option. Our consumption is 16 million tonnes per year and our domestic production is eight million tonnes. We have to depend on imports,” he said.
He suggested that the Indian importers should try to engage with the Indonesian government and companies for the import of sustainably produced palm oil. He said that the rainforests are critical and cannot be lost. Giving the example of Brazil, he said that the Indonesian government, too, should strictly follow rules and regulations for the protection of rainforests.
