Palm Oil Industry

Credits: Lian Pin Koh / Creative Commons

Credits: Lian Pin Koh / Creative Commons

The versatility with which we use palm oil has helped Indonesia improve their economy over the years. Much of the palm plantations are located within lowland forest areas and peat land, which are where orangutans live.

It is common practice to clear a forest and selling any valuable timber before planting palm trees. So many companies tend to clear more area than necessary, often leaving part of the land barren after cutting down the trees. Land is often cleared using uncontrolled forest fires, which severely degrade not just the land they are clearing but also surrounding forests. It is estimated that the amount of forest removed just for palm plantations could be 10 million hectares. The graph below shows that palm oil production has grown exponentially over the past 20 odd years.

palm oil graph

Yellow color represents Indonesia
Credits: Orang Utan Republik Foundation

The process of converting forests into palm plantations not only affects the orangutans but also the local communities surrounding these forests. As water is drained from the forests, water sources such as wells dry up.

Much of the habitat needed for orangutans to survive is also in danger of being converted. An example is Central Kalimantan, where 2/3 of the habitat it thought to be in danger of being converted into a plantation. Many palm companies also continue to apply for licenses that will allow for them to convert peat land, some of which is in a Mawas Forest Reserve, which is a protected area. The fact that they even attempt to get licenses for land in a protected area shows that these companies do not care much about the natural wildlife in Borneo.