Let us talk about the issues in oil palm!
Currently
86% of the world’s supply of palm oil comes from large industrial plantations
in Indonesia and Malaysia. We know that there are so many things made by palm
oil. One of them is RUBBER. Unfortunately, palm oil production is a leading
cause of deforestation; in Indonesia alone, the palm oil industry deforests an
area the size of Rhode Island every year.
EFFECT OF
DEFORESTATION
•Loss of
endangered species
Road
networks that are constructed to allow palm oil plantation workers and
equipment access to the forest also increase accessibility of these areas to
poachers that are looking for these kinds of valuable animals. This allows
poachers to comfortably drive to an area to sit and wait for their target where
previously they may have had to trek through inaccessible areas of forest.
•The livelihood of millions of local
people threatened.
With plantations
systematically destroying the rainforest land that the local people depend on,
communities are continuously finding themselves with no choice but to become
plantation workers. Faced with poor and degrading working conditions, they
often earn barely enough income to survive and support their families. Instead
of being able to sustain themselves, indigenous communities become reliant on
the success of the palm oil industry for their income and survival, leaving
these villagers incredibly vulnerable to the world market price of palm oil
which they have no control over.
•Climate change will be at alarming
rate
The removal of the native forests often
involves the burning of invaluable timber and remaining forest undergrowth,
emitting immense quantities of smoke into the atmosphere and making Indonesia
the third highest greenhouse gas emitter in the world.
NEW SOURCE OF GROWTH
The climate for growth in the 21st century
is also changing, as resource pressures push up costs, and businesses are more
closely scrutinized amid changing expectations about their public and social
responsibilities. Although such responses seem rational, history tells us that
it is better in hard times to actively seek out opportunities for growth.
Recession is never uniform, and it always creates the potential for disruptive
shifts in the structure of markets and the relative income of different groups
of consumers. It often accelerates existing shifts in values. It encourages
technological innovation.
There is no broad-brush solution which
unlocks the potential for growth in the short term. But in the medium to long term,
major changes in the wider business environment could rewrite the rules in some
business sectors and categories— or even remove them from the landscape
completely. Change is likely to come quickly and disruptively, and growth
opportunities will emerge as sustainability becomes a more present issue in all
our lives.
