Social and environmental impact of palm oil

Palm oil, produced from the oil palm, is a basic source of income for many farmers in South East Asia, Central and West Africa, and Central America. It is locally used as cooking oil, exported for use in much commercial food and personal care products and is converted into biofuel. It produces up to 10 times more oil per unit area than soybeans, rapeseed or sunflowers.

Oil palms produce 38% of the world's vegetable-oil output on 5% of the world's vegetable-oil farmland. Palm oil plantations, typically monoculture crops are under increasing scrutiny for their effects on the environment, including loss of carbon-sequestering, biodiverse forest land. There is also concern over displacement and disruption of human and animal populations due to palm oil cultivation.