Palm oil imports affecting wildlife in Indonesia, Malaysia

Oil palm plantations often impose environmental and social costs due to indiscriminate forest clearing leading to habitat loss of threatened and endangered species and disregard for the rights and interests of local communities in these countries, the report says.

The report 'Palm Oil Market and Sustainability in India' was launched today at the Delhi Sustainable Development Summit organised by TERI.

India is the world's largest importer of palm oil and in Indonesia and Malaysia, almost a third of forest loss in the last 10 years was due to the expansion of oil palm, it says.

India's palm oil imports have doubled in the last few years. A majority of India's palm oil imports are from Indonesia and Malaysia. Indonesia supplies almost 73 per cent of India's local demand of palm oil, the report says.

Noting that the demand for edible oils in India has grown steadily at a Compound Annual Growth Rate of 4.4 per cent from 2001 to 2011, it says that India is the world's largest consumer of palm oil with 23 per cent of the global consumption in 2011-12.

At the report launch, Ravi Singh, Secretary General and CEO, World Wildlife Fund-India said, "When forests shrink, so does the home of endangered species, such as the tiger, rhino, elephant and orangutan