Palm Oil Essay

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Palm oil is a type of vegetable oil and is a globally traded commodity that touches our lives in almost every aspect, it can be stated that fragments of these oils are literally inside of us. As palm oil is found in roughly 50% of packaged goods in which the vast majority consumes. Bedsides from foods, it is even found in lipstick, soaps, detergents and other household goods. We are truly ringed by palm oil everyday as it plays the key ingredient in many foods and body products. And over the past few decades, this specialty of palm oil and its industry has grown dramatically and now accounts for a quarter of global vegetable oil consumption and nearly 60% of the global trade in vegetable oils. What’s more is that palm oil is a very productive crop as it offers a far greater yield at a lower cost of production than other vegetable oils. Today these palm oil industries are mainly produced and exported from South East Asia, more specifically from Indonesia and Malaysia .The global market for palm oil is driving a process of rapid and large-scale land acquisition in these two countries, which together produce more than 80 percent of the internationally traded crude palm oil. And the land being targeted for expanding plantations is mainly located on the island of Borneo. The island of Borneo is known to be one of the two most bio-diverse regions of the world. Areas that are being undertaken within the island by the palm oil industries includes Sabah and Sarawak which are Malaysian eastern stares and the four provinces of Kalimantan. And apparently, the Heart of Borneo as well. The HoB is specified to the main part of the island where forests remain untouched. Currently, there are about 25,000 km2 of oil palm plantations in Borneo, and the area is most likely to increase in response to global demand. There is no doubt the land use of these palm plantations have

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