Is the palm oil industry misleading the public?

A pamphlet distributed recently by the Indonesian Palm Oil Commission (IPOC) states: “Compared to tropical forest, oil-palm plantations possesses [sic] several environmental advantages, it consumes more carbon dioxide (CO2) and releases more oxygen (O2) than tropical forest, which is beneficial to the environment.”

Few serious scientists would support the claim that oil-palm plantations store more carbon than natural tropical forests.
In fact, several recent studies show that oil-palm plantations, when established in place of peat lands and natural forests, produce more greenhouse gas emissions relative to natural forests. If the use of fertilizer and emissions from processing are factored in, the climate impact of converting natural forests for oil palm is even greater.

As is the case with any plant, oil-palm trees do sequester carbon as they grow-carbon is a basic building block of plant tissue. Nevertheless, the process of clearing forest in order to establish a plantation releases more carbon than will be sequestered by the growing oil palms. So while a new oil-palm plantation may grow faster-and sequester carbon at a higher annual rate-than a naturally regenerating forest, in the end the oil plantation will still store less carbon (50-90 percent less over 20 years) than the original forest cover.

Jakarta Post