While palm oil is one of the most used vegetable oils in processed food, it is associated with deforestation and habitat loss in producer countries, particularly Southeast Asia.
“Oil palm is blamed for its large environmental impacts, especially the reduction of carbon stocks and biodiversity from tropical forest conversion, so the search for low-impact land-use change alternatives has become imperative,” write the team of international researchers from the École Polytechnique Fédérale in Lausanne, Switzerland and the Pontificia University of Javeriana in Bogota, Colombia.
Their study is the first to look at the carbon footprint of palm oil production over two plantation cycles covering 56 years, which meant they could calculate the benefit of using available pastureland instead of native savannas and natural forests in Colombia, the world’s fourth-largest palm oil producer.
“This study provides empirical field-based evidence that the conversion of pastures to oil carbon is carbon neutral from an ecosystem carbon storage perspective," they conclude.
'An opportunity to reduce palm oil's large carbon footprint'
The researchers found that ecosystem carbon storage on pasture-to-palm plantations in Colombian savanna regions remained unchanged after 56 years. Compared to rainforest conversion, this alternative land-use change reduces net ecosystem carbon losses by 99.7%.
“Our findings indicate that conversion of pastures to oil palm can be an opportunity to preserve and even increase carbon sequestration in the tropics and reduce the large carbon footprint of oil palm development on forested land,” add the researchers.
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December 19, 2019 at 11:28PM
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Colombia's pastureland can produce carbon-neutral palm oil: Study - FoodNavigator-Latam
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