Towards sustainable palm oil production: The positive and negative impacts on ecosystem services and human wellbeing

Lacour M. Ayompe; M. Schaafsma; Benis N. Egoh

doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.123914

Towards sustainable palm oil production: The positive and negative impacts on ecosystem services and human wellbeing

Lacour M. Ayompe^*
, M. Schaafsma
, Benis N. Egoh

^*Corresponding author for this work

Environmental Economics

Research output: Contribution to Journal › Review article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Palm oil is an important commodity contributing to livelihoods of many communities, GDP of governments and the achievement of several sustainable development goals (SDG) including no poverty, zero hunger, and decent work and economic growth. However, its cultivation and continuous expansion due to high and increasing demand has led to many negative effects and subsequent calls to make production sustainable. To this end, information is needed to understand the negative and positive impacts on both the environment and human wellbeing to respond appropriately. Sustainability in palm oil trade entails having a global supply chain based on environmentally friendly and socially acceptable production and sourcing. Much has been done in understanding and responding to impacts on the environment but not so much on social impacts partly due to a lack of information. The direct (socio-economic) and indirect (through ecosystem services) impacts of palm oil trade were reviewed using peer-reviewed literature and the Environmental Justice Atlas (EJA). Our results show that most of the 57 case studies were conducted in Indonesia and Malaysia where 85% of global production of palm oil occurs. The results show both negative (109) and positive (99) direct impacts on humans. Indirect impacts through ecosystems services were predominantly negative (116) as were the direct negative impacts. The most frequently studied direct negative impacts were conflicts (25%), housing conditions (18%) and land grabbing (16%) while the most frequently studied direct positive impacts were income generation (33%) and employment (19%). Ongoing initiatives to make the palm oil sector sustainable such as the RSPO are focused on the environment but need to pay more attention to (related) social impacts. To make palm oil production sustainable and to meet SDGs such as ensuring healthy lives and promoting wellbeing as well as responsible consumption and production, negative social impacts of palm oil trade need to be addressed.

Original language	English
Article number	123914
Pages (from-to)	1-11
Number of pages	11
Journal	Journal of Cleaner Production
Volume	278
Early online date	28 Aug 2020
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.123914
Publication status	Published - 1 Jan 2021

Funding

Two sources of information were used in this review to understand palm oil trade impacts on human wellbeing through case studies of direct (socio-economic) and indirect (through ecosystem services). Our first source of information was from peer-reviewed literature (Web of Science) to look for papers that used primary data to assess the impacts of palm oil trade on human wellbeing. Although many studies on palm oil trade are conducted by NGOs such as the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and World Wildlife Fund (WWF), we did not include all grey literature but used only the Environmental Justice Atlas (https://ejatlas.org/), a source of grey literature to compare our results on the negative impacts of palm oil trade on human wellbeing. A limitation of Environmental Justice Atlas (EJA) is that it only reports negative impacts.We acknowledge funding from the UK Research and Innovation's Global Challenges Research Fund (UKRI GCRF) through the Trade, Development and the Environment Hub project (project number ES/S008160/1). We acknowledge funding from the UK Research and Innovation’s Global Challenges Research Fund ( UKRI GCRF ) through the Trade, Development and the Environment Hub project (project number ES / S008160/1 ).

Funders	Funder number
Environmental Justice Atlas
Trade, Development and the Environment Hub project	ES / S008160/1
World Wildlife Fund
UK Research and Innovation
Centre for International Forestry Research

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 1 No Poverty

Keywords

Palm oil certification
Sustainable development goals
Ecosystem services
Socio-economic impacts
Sustainability
Human wellbeing

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10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.123914

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Cite this

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title = "Towards sustainable palm oil production: The positive and negative impacts on ecosystem services and human wellbeing",

abstract = "Palm oil is an important commodity contributing to livelihoods of many communities, GDP of governments and the achievement of several sustainable development goals (SDG) including no poverty, zero hunger, and decent work and economic growth. However, its cultivation and continuous expansion due to high and increasing demand has led to many negative effects and subsequent calls to make production sustainable. To this end, information is needed to understand the negative and positive impacts on both the environment and human wellbeing to respond appropriately. Sustainability in palm oil trade entails having a global supply chain based on environmentally friendly and socially acceptable production and sourcing. Much has been done in understanding and responding to impacts on the environment but not so much on social impacts partly due to a lack of information. The direct (socio-economic) and indirect (through ecosystem services) impacts of palm oil trade were reviewed using peer-reviewed literature and the Environmental Justice Atlas (EJA). Our results show that most of the 57 case studies were conducted in Indonesia and Malaysia where 85\% of global production of palm oil occurs. The results show both negative (109) and positive (99) direct impacts on humans. Indirect impacts through ecosystems services were predominantly negative (116) as were the direct negative impacts. The most frequently studied direct negative impacts were conflicts (25\%), housing conditions (18\%) and land grabbing (16\%) while the most frequently studied direct positive impacts were income generation (33\%) and employment (19\%). Ongoing initiatives to make the palm oil sector sustainable such as the RSPO are focused on the environment but need to pay more attention to (related) social impacts. To make palm oil production sustainable and to meet SDGs such as ensuring healthy lives and promoting wellbeing as well as responsible consumption and production, negative social impacts of palm oil trade need to be addressed.",

keywords = "Palm oil certification, Sustainable development goals, Ecosystem services, Socio-economic impacts, Sustainability, Human wellbeing",

author = "Ayompe, \{Lacour M.\} and M. Schaafsma and Egoh, \{Benis N.\}",

year = "2021",

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day = "1",

doi = "10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.123914",

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AU - Ayompe, Lacour M.

AU - Schaafsma, M.

AU - Egoh, Benis N.

PY - 2021/1/1

Y1 - 2021/1/1

N2 - Palm oil is an important commodity contributing to livelihoods of many communities, GDP of governments and the achievement of several sustainable development goals (SDG) including no poverty, zero hunger, and decent work and economic growth. However, its cultivation and continuous expansion due to high and increasing demand has led to many negative effects and subsequent calls to make production sustainable. To this end, information is needed to understand the negative and positive impacts on both the environment and human wellbeing to respond appropriately. Sustainability in palm oil trade entails having a global supply chain based on environmentally friendly and socially acceptable production and sourcing. Much has been done in understanding and responding to impacts on the environment but not so much on social impacts partly due to a lack of information. The direct (socio-economic) and indirect (through ecosystem services) impacts of palm oil trade were reviewed using peer-reviewed literature and the Environmental Justice Atlas (EJA). Our results show that most of the 57 case studies were conducted in Indonesia and Malaysia where 85% of global production of palm oil occurs. The results show both negative (109) and positive (99) direct impacts on humans. Indirect impacts through ecosystems services were predominantly negative (116) as were the direct negative impacts. The most frequently studied direct negative impacts were conflicts (25%), housing conditions (18%) and land grabbing (16%) while the most frequently studied direct positive impacts were income generation (33%) and employment (19%). Ongoing initiatives to make the palm oil sector sustainable such as the RSPO are focused on the environment but need to pay more attention to (related) social impacts. To make palm oil production sustainable and to meet SDGs such as ensuring healthy lives and promoting wellbeing as well as responsible consumption and production, negative social impacts of palm oil trade need to be addressed.

AB - Palm oil is an important commodity contributing to livelihoods of many communities, GDP of governments and the achievement of several sustainable development goals (SDG) including no poverty, zero hunger, and decent work and economic growth. However, its cultivation and continuous expansion due to high and increasing demand has led to many negative effects and subsequent calls to make production sustainable. To this end, information is needed to understand the negative and positive impacts on both the environment and human wellbeing to respond appropriately. Sustainability in palm oil trade entails having a global supply chain based on environmentally friendly and socially acceptable production and sourcing. Much has been done in understanding and responding to impacts on the environment but not so much on social impacts partly due to a lack of information. The direct (socio-economic) and indirect (through ecosystem services) impacts of palm oil trade were reviewed using peer-reviewed literature and the Environmental Justice Atlas (EJA). Our results show that most of the 57 case studies were conducted in Indonesia and Malaysia where 85% of global production of palm oil occurs. The results show both negative (109) and positive (99) direct impacts on humans. Indirect impacts through ecosystems services were predominantly negative (116) as were the direct negative impacts. The most frequently studied direct negative impacts were conflicts (25%), housing conditions (18%) and land grabbing (16%) while the most frequently studied direct positive impacts were income generation (33%) and employment (19%). Ongoing initiatives to make the palm oil sector sustainable such as the RSPO are focused on the environment but need to pay more attention to (related) social impacts. To make palm oil production sustainable and to meet SDGs such as ensuring healthy lives and promoting wellbeing as well as responsible consumption and production, negative social impacts of palm oil trade need to be addressed.

KW - Palm oil certification

KW - Sustainable development goals

KW - Ecosystem services

KW - Socio-economic impacts

KW - Sustainability

KW - Human wellbeing

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DO - 10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.123914

M3 - Review article

SN - 0959-6526

VL - 278

SP - 1

EP - 11

JO - Journal of Cleaner Production

JF - Journal of Cleaner Production

M1 - 123914

ER -

Towards sustainable palm oil production: The positive and negative impacts on ecosystem services and human wellbeing

Abstract

Funding

UN SDGs

Keywords

Access to Document

Persistent URL (handle)

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