{"id":996,"date":"2026-09-17T15:05:25","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T13:05:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/forumpalmoel.local\/herausforderungen\/"},"modified":"2026-10-08T17:23:28","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T15:23:28","slug":"challenges","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/forumpalmoel.org\/en\/challenges\/","title":{"rendered":"Challenges & Opportunities"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Challenges & Opportunities<\/h1>\n \n <\/div>\n \n \n \n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/section>\n<\/div>\n
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Challenges<\/h2>\n \n
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Due to the growing world population, demand for palm oil is also steadily increasing. While 3.62 million hectares of land were used for palm oil production worldwide in 1961, in 2021 it was almost 20 million<\/a>, and today almost 30 million hectares (2026), with an upward trend. The associated land-use changes, and especially the resulting environmental effects, are therefore much-discussed topics in politics, science, and the public sphere. And indeed, there are clear grounds for criticism of palm oil production: whether rainforest deforestation, CO2 emissions, or human rights violations, the negative impacts of expanding palm oil plantations are almost as diverse as the positive properties of this booming agricultural commodity. <\/p>\n <\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/section>\n <\/div>\n

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Rainforest Destruction & Slash-and-Burn Clearing<\/h2>\n \n
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Since oil palms grow exclusively in tropical climates, rainforest is often cleared on a large scale for their cultivation, and greenhouse gas emissions are released through slash-and-burn clearing. Indonesia and Malaysia in particular have suffered major losses of primary forest due to oil palm cultivation. Primary forest clearing increased in both countries for decades. In recent years, however, the area of forest cleared annually has been declining. For Indonesia, this represents an average reduction in primary forest loss<\/a> of 64 percent when comparing 2017 and 2022, and for Malaysia 57 percent. While these are noteworthy advances, over 0.2 million hectares of primary forest were still cleared in Indonesia in 2022. <\/p>\n

Palm oil production thus contributes significantly to species extinction. In addition to the critically endangered orangutan, many other species are affected by the destruction of rainforests. Researchers at Queen Mary University of London were able to demonstrate, using the example of bats, that plantation cultivation has catastrophic consequences due to the constant fragmentation and destruction of tropical primary forests. Specifically, the diversity of animal species, as well as the genetic diversity within a species, are lost in the process. These findings were published in “Science Daily<\/a>” as early as 2011. <\/p>\n <\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/section>\n <\/div>\n

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