Malaysian corporations are planning to move in to the Amazon, apparently with the blessing of the politicos. The Brazilian Government is mooting a law that would treat oil palm plantations on a par with forests to meet the landowner’s forest reserve requirements. This is akin to handing over a blank check to the marauders of biodiversity.
Out to Make a Quick Profit In Amazonia
To make a fast return, the oil palm plantations owners usually favor clearing primary forest for plantations. These profits easily subsidize the costs of raising a plantation in the initial stages until the oil palm plantations become profitable. In Malaysia and Indonesia, the forest clearing has put serious pressure on the biodiversity of the area, including the Orangutan and Tiger.
Depredation of Forests and Ravaging of the Environment
The primary environmental concern is the depredation of virgin forests. In addition, the oil palm industry usually discharges effluent directly into water bodies, with disastrous consequences. Water is polluted and fish and other aquatic animals are killed. Erosion and sedimentation increase many times. Water and the food security of local inhabitants are compromised in the process. In one incident in 2003, the Jakarta Post reported that palm oil waste dumped by a large Indonesian company killed thousands of fish in the Siak River.
A Biological Desert
Oil palm plantations are so damaging to the environment that after a 25-year harvest, the lands are often abandoned. Soils are leached of nutrients. In the acidic environments that follow, few other plants grow. Infestation by weedy grasses follows which act as tinder for wildfires. On an average, oil palm plantations store less than 40% of the carbon found in native forests. Plantations fragment the rainforests and hinder the migratory paths of animals. Newly-built roads and other infrastructures easily facilitate encroachments. This also makes animals easily accessible to poaching. Human-wildlife encounters increase and there is the chance that the animals may be killed by workers. When the chips are down a palm oil plantation works out to be a “biological desert”
Key Ecosystem Services Compromised
Rainforests have a direct influence on local and global climates. They moderate air temperatures and maintain atmospheric humidity. They play a stellar and unmatched role in maintaining soil and water resources. Excessive rainfall is absorbed and stream flow is fine-tuned. This cannot be replaced by any artificial means. Against this backdrop key ecosystem services are seriously compromised and diminished in oil palm plantations. Large-scale expansion of oil palm production could have serious, repercussions on carbon storage also.
What if the Plantations are Raised on Cleared Lands?
Even if plantations are confined to cleared lands in Amazonia, many of these areas are already being used for agricultural production. Displacing the current landowners will have the effect of pushing croplands and livestock production further into the frontier. There are no gainers in this process. The operations will definitely drive up demand and the price of land. This is not an isolated fear. There is an example already of Soy farmers buying up and displacing ranchers and small-scale farmers
What Could be Done in the Event of Unavoidable Plantations?
- Force the Government to adopt production methods proposed by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm.
- Force the companies to confine their plantations to agricultural or abandoned lands, far from the natural forests.
- Tackle forest fragmentation by establishing forest corridors, riparian strips, and small reserves within plantations to give succor to wildlife.
- Ensure that investors are truly plantation companies and not timber companies out to make a fast buck.
The ideal would be not to have any Palm Oil plantations anywhere in the vicinity of the Amazon. The plantations are a canker that will slowly eat into the biodiversity. This has been amply demonstrated In Malaysia and Indonesia.
References
Is oil palm the next emerging threat to the Amazon? Rhett A. Butler & William F. Laurance,Tropical Conservation Science Vol.2(1):1-10, 2009
Mohan Alembath - I am a retired wildlife warden who has put in 30 years service in the wildlife reserves of Kerala,India. I was trained at Forest College ...
