Genetic Resources in Agriculture (chap 4) Part 2

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.