Sri Lanka bans palm oil. The decision, published in the official gazette on 5.4.21, establishes a freeze on imports of tropical fat (200 thousand tons/year) and the elimination of plantations on national soil. Within 10 years, oil palms will be replaced with rubber trees and other useful crops to ensure greater biodiversity and protection of soil and water resources. (1)
Sri Lanka, stop palm oil.
The turnaround by the Sinhalese government reflects recommendations reported in a 2018 report by a panel of environmental experts from Sri Lanka’s Central Environmental Authority (CEA) (2).
The paper highlights the correlation between the presence of oil palm plantations and phenomena such as soil erosion and depletion of land water resources. With potentially irreversible effects on the island’s ecosystem balance and the survival of local communities.
Too many environmental risks
Sri Lanka’s African oil palm(Elaeis guineensis) has spread throughout the Indikada Mukalana forest reserve in the western part of the country.
Gamini Hitinayake, the lead referee of the expert panel that authored the report and a professor at Peradeniya University’s Faculty of Agriculture, argues that oil palm proliferation threatens native plant and animal species.
The invasion of oil palm
Oil palm is indeed a very invasive species. It therefore poses a threat to all traditional crops, such as rubber, tea, coconut, rice and vegetable plantations, which are more environmentally friendly and a source of greater benefit to local people by generating more employment.
Further concern is the long-term environmental consequence of the proliferation of foreign insects. African oil palm (allogenic, i.e., non-native) does not find natural pollinators in Sri Lanka. To remedy this, African oil palm pollinator weevils(Elaeidobius kamerunicus) were introduced.
Excessive water consumption
Intensive oil palm cultivation requires large amounts of water, especially during the growth phase of the plant. This, according to CEA environmentalists, raises fears of local waterways drying up, as well as their detour in favor of plantations, to the detriment of local people and other crops. Scenarios already widely documented in Colombia, as we have reported.
An attack on biodiversity
Devoid of undergrowth or plant associations, intensive oil palm plantations are a highly biodiversity-averse monoculture.
In contrast, common rubber plantations offer a relatively high level of plant diversity, benefiting local wildlife. Consider the Indian pangolins(Manis crassicaudata), also known as scaly anteaters, an endangered species that much prefer rubber plantations as their main habitat after forests.
Negative impact on local populations
The impact on local communities and their economies is equally devastating. Intensive cultivation of oil palm plantations is gradually replacing that of local traditional crops, such as cassava, potato, yam, rice, vegetables, general fruits, and rubber. Crops that provide a source of food, ensure a high level of biodiversity and fuel a sustainable labor market that can generate employment, benefiting local people.
Illegal plantations
Last but not least, most of the approximately 11,000 hectares of oil palms grown in Sri Lanka are outlawed, as they are contrary to the general guidelines provided for the cultivation of this crop.
Despite the ban on planting oil palms on slopes steeper than 30 degrees, in some areas palms are grown even on slopes steeper than 60 degrees. The same goes for the prohibition against planting in wetlands or on riverbanks, which is often violated.
The reaction of the palm industry
The new Sinhalese government policy is bitterly opposed by the ‘palmocrats’.
Sri Lanka’s Palm Oil Industry Association rejected the panel’s recommendations, following which the government ban was then decreed. And he added that companies that have overwhelmingly invested in oil palm cultivation in Sri Lanka do not intend to step back, promising to appeal the measure.
The governments of neighboring large palm oil-producing countries-Indonesia and Malaysia-also quickly hit back, achieving a reversal of the ban on Sri Lanka’s import of the vegetable fat. Import flows will continue, but limited to high-quality refined palm oil, according to the Daily Mirror. A friendly statement toward powerful neighbors, yet one that could be defused by citizen choices. As was already the case in Europe.
Elena Bosani
Notes
(1) SEE http://documents.gov.lk/files/egz/2021/4/2222-13_E.pdf
See also Malaka Rodrigo. Sri Lanka to ban palm oil imports, raze plantations over environmental concerns. mongabay.com 9.5.21 https://news.mongabay.com/2021/05/sri-lanka-to-ban-palm-oil-imports-raze-plantations-over-environmental-concerns/
(2) See Central Environment Authority, http://www.cea.lk/web/images/news/2018/katupol/Oil_Palm_Report_28.05.2018_03-ilovepdf-compressed.pdf
(3) See Palm oil dispute with Indonesia, Malaysia resolved- Minister. Daily Mirror, 10.5.21. https://www.dailymirror.lk/print/front_page/Palm-oil-dispute-with-Indonesia-Malaysia-resolved-Minister/238-211624
Lawyer in Milan and Frankfurt am Main. An expert in family, juvenile and criminal law, she is now enrolled in a university master's programme in food law
