Palm Oil Cultivation on Peatland, Greenhouse Gases and Amendments to the Roundtable of Sustainable Palm Oil

The demand for vegetable oil derived from oil palm is rapidly expanding. Appromiately 90% of world production takes place in Indonesia and Malaysia. Unfortanately, around 10% of palm oil plantations in Southeast Asia are on peat soils, which until recently were covered by peat swamp forests. The drainage of these carbon-rich organic soils for plantations is causing massive greenhouse gas emissions. 

Faizal Parish, Director of the Global Environent Centre, tells us more.