Oil pest in the rainforest? The oil palm boom in Malaysia and Indonesia

During the last decades no other tropical crop has been similarly successful as the oil palm. Palm oil and palm kernel oil are not only important ingredients of various foodstuffs. They also play a leading role in the oleochemical industry. The main reasons for this success are the manifold usability, the high productivity and the reasonable price. Economists and politicians praise the enormous potential of the palm oil industry for economic growth and food security, as well as for rural employment and poverty alleviation in developing countries. There are, however, also critical voices: the oil palm boom is made responsible for the destruction of rainforests, the decrease of biodiversity, the pollution of rivers, the rise of forest fires and the displacement of local communities. The present article aims at discussing and evaluating these two positions. By the example of the Ophir estate in West-Sumatra the paper shows that the production of palm oil can indeed be both economically viable and socially tolerable as well as ecologically sustainable.