Impact of Malaysian palm oil on sustainable development goals: co-benefits and trade-offs across mitigation strategies.

Autor: Mohd Hanafiah K; School of Biological Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Penang, Malaysia.; Life Sciences, Macfarlane Burnet Institute, Melbourne, VIC 3004 Australia., Abd Mutalib AH; School of Biological Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Penang, Malaysia.; Institute of Tropical Biodiversity and Sustainable Development, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, 21030 Kuala Nerus, Terengganu Malaysia., Miard P; School of Biological Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Penang, Malaysia., Goh CS; Jeffrey Cheah Institute on Southeast Asia, Sunway University, 47500 Bandar Sunway, Selangor Malaysia., Mohd Sah SA; School of Biological Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Penang, Malaysia., Ruppert N; School of Biological Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Penang, Malaysia.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Sustainability science [Sustain Sci] 2022; Vol. 17 (4), pp. 1639-1661. Date of Electronic Publication: 2021 Oct 15.
DOI: 10.1007/s11625-021-01052-4
Abstrakt: Palm oil (PO) is an important source of livelihood, but unsustainable practices and widespread consumption may threaten human and planetary health. We reviewed 234 articles and summarized evidence on the impact of PO on health, social and economic aspects, environment, and biodiversity in the Malaysian context, and discuss mitigation strategies based on the sustainable development goals (SDGs). The evidence on health impact of PO is equivocal, with knowledge gaps on whether moderate consumption elevates risk for chronic diseases, but the benefits of phytonutrients (SDG2) and sensory characteristics of PO seem offset by its high proportion of saturated fat (SDG3). While PO contributes to economic growth (SDG9, 12), poverty alleviation (SDG1, 8, 10), enhanced food security (SDG2), alternative energy (SDG9), and long-term employment opportunities (SDG1), human rights issues and inequities attributed to PO production persist (SDG8). Environmental impacts arise through large-scale expansion of monoculture plantations associated with increased greenhouse gas emissions (SDG13), especially from converted carbon-rich peat lands, which can cause forest fires and annual trans-boundary haze; changes in microclimate properties and soil nutrient content (SDG6, 13); increased sedimentation and change of hydrological properties of streams near slopes (SDG6); and increased human wildlife conflicts, increase of invasive species occurrence, and reduced biodiversity (SDG14, 15). Practices such as biological pest control, circular waste management, multi-cropping and certification may mitigate negative impacts on environmental SDGs, without hampering progress of socioeconomic SDGs. While strategies focusing on improving practices within and surrounding plantations offer co-benefits for socioeconomic, environment and biodiversity-related SDGs, several challenges in achieving scalable solutions must be addressed to ensure holistic sustainability of PO in Malaysia for various stakeholders.
Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11625-021-01052-4.
Competing Interests: Conflict of interestThe authors have no conflict of interest to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.
(© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Japan KK, part of Springer Nature 2021.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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