A new regulation aims to rid the palm oil supply chain of imports that come from former forestland. Southeast Asian countries say it threatens livelihoods.
With luck this ban on palm oil from land that was cleared post 2020 should also help cut down on the haze and air quality problems southeast asia has been experiencing as a result of the slash and burn practices that up until now while illegal have been relatively unhampered given lackluster enforcement. So if nothing else the positive sourcing requirements are great news for people in all the nations around Indonesia and Malaysia who have had to put up with all the health consequences of their neighbor’s practice of turning a blind eye to these farming methods.
Truly though, the real victims in all of this are the poor plantation owners who now suddenly have to provide some evidence that they didn’t break the laws that have been in place for over 20 years after they kept getting flagrantly broken time and time again. Surely the handful of ineffectual token industry efforts to premote sustainable palm oil should have been enough to keep anyone from actually doing anything./s
With luck this ban on palm oil from land that was cleared post 2020 should also help cut down on the haze and air quality problems southeast asia has been experiencing as a result of the slash and burn practices that up until now while illegal have been relatively unhampered given lackluster enforcement. So if nothing else the positive sourcing requirements are great news for people in all the nations around Indonesia and Malaysia who have had to put up with all the health consequences of their neighbor’s practice of turning a blind eye to these farming methods.
Truly though, the real victims in all of this are the poor plantation owners who now suddenly have to provide some evidence that they didn’t break the laws that have been in place for over 20 years after they kept getting flagrantly broken time and time again. Surely the handful of ineffectual token industry efforts to premote sustainable palm oil should have been enough to keep anyone from actually doing anything./s