Aug 23, 2010
Second Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil Prod to Meet in Brazil
Author: Michael Cordonnier/Soybean & Corn Advisor, Inc.
Later this week, participants will kick off the Second Latin American Conference and Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil Production scheduled for August 25-26 in Belem, Para. The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil was founded in 2004 with the goal of developing guidelines for sustainable palm oil production around the world. An estimated 336 participants from 37 countries will join 40 national associations to discuss sustainable production.
The Roundtable's guidelines for sustainable production have come under scrutiny in recent years as environmental groups put pressure on food manufactures to not purchase palm oil from companies they feel are not adhering to the guidelines.
For their part, the Brazilian Government will present their plan for Sustainable Palm Oil Production in the Amazon Region. The goal of the program is to establish guidelines for sustainability as the palm oil industry develops in Brazil. This program has already certified 315,600 hectares of sustainable palm oil production in Brazil and 1.58 million tons of oil production.
The main tenet of the program is that new palm oil plantations in Brazil may not be established in existing rain forest. In other words, no new land clearing will be authorized for the establishment of palm oil plantations. New palm oil plantations must be established on land that has already been deforested, preferable degraded pastures. These are pastures that are highly erodible and have a low carrying capacity. The government feels that palm plantations could cut down on erosion and be a better use for the land instead of pasture. The program also gives preference in their lending guidelines for smaller producers and family farmers.