In Conversation With Jaboury Ghazoul, ETH Professor of Ecosystem Management
Our key takeaways
Oil palm development has led to the destruction of undisturbed rainforest in Southeast Asia. The whole picture, however, is more complex. In many cases, oil palm plantations have been cultivated on former rice paddies, logging areas and more recently on former rubber plantations. Hence, the
oil palm is often not the immediate cause of deforestation for it is much cheaper to establish plantations in areas that require no forest clearing.
There has been a lot of effort worldwide to establish standards for sustainable palm oil. The
internationally recognized Roundtable of Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), sets best practices for the production and sourcing of palm oil. At the national level, Indonesia and Malaysia have their own palm oil sustainability standards. These