Two recent articles paint a contrasted picture of the effect of palm oil on the environment.

Oncehailed as a major ecological improvement in the fight over globalwarming” the use of palm oil as a biofuel has become more and morecontroversial” especially because of the impact of oil palm plantationson forests. Malaysia and Indonesia have sacrificed large surfaces ofrainforest to the new crop” raising fears that whatever decrease in CO2emission being achieved by the use of “green fuel” is largely offset bythe destruction of natural CO2 consuming trees. In addition todeforestation” the effects on biodiversity and social justice can alsobe disastrous” as described in this article in The Guardian.

However”others think that with greater regulation preventing oil palmcultivation on natural forest land” and ensuring that local communitiesbenefit from revenues” a socially responsible and environmentallyfriendly palm oil industry is possible. See the article on Mongabay.com.

A good presentation of the issue can be found in this CNN article.