Government to track UK contribution to palm oil deforestation

The coalition government is commissioning a major new piece of research to establish the extent to which British firms and consumers are contributing to deforestation in South East Asia, through growing demand for palm oil.

Environment secretary Caroline Spelman will launch the research project at the First Global Business of Biodiversity (GBOB) Symposium in London later today, where business leaders and scientists from around the world are gathering to discuss how to reverse the accelerating rate of global biodiversity loss.

Increased demand for palm oil from food producers and biofuel firms has been widely blamed by environmental groups for fuelling deforestation in Malaysia and Indonesia. However, the full scale of the problem, and the extent to which British firms are indirectly responsible for deforestation is not well understood.

"Consumers and industry have the power to save rainforests and wildlife in areas like South East Asia. But, in the case of palm oil, we need to know more about our consumption in order to find solutions," Spelman is due to say. " We're hoping to get these answers with the project starting next month, which will map our use of palm oil."

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said that bids for the research project have already been received and a decision on a contractor is due next week. Work will then get underway with the report's findings due for release next month.

The GBOB Symposium will also play host to a meeting of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, an independent group including 400 members from across the plantation and retail industries. The group has developed a certification scheme designed to ensure palm oil is produced using sustainable plantations that have not contributed to forest clearance.

The group is expected to discuss how to drive increased demand for sustainably certified palm oil. An estimated four per cent of palm oil on the global market is now certified as sustainable. However, despite a number of high-profile commitments from retailers, pledging to phase out their use of non-certified palm oil, there have been reports that some sustainable plantations have experienced lower-than-expected demand for their palm oil.

Defra said that in addition to the new research projects, it plans to stimulate demand for sustainably certified palm oil through a project with the Chinese Chamber of Commerce.