Oil plantations threaten biodiversity

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The expansion of agricultural areas under oilseeds has led to the fact that 1.5% of flora and fauna species in the tropics and temperate latitudes are at risk of extinction, according to a study by the Ecolog:Yin team from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH).

The researchers assessed the effects of 19 plant species that are used to produce vegetable oils. Among them are rapeseed, olives, cotton and other plants. Oil palms, soybeans and cocoa beans have the most devastating effects on biodiversity. They account for about 75% of biodiversity loss.

Over the past 25 years, human influence on the ecosystem due to the development of this sector has increased by 83%, writes Kedr.

The greatest damage is suffered by tropical regions, which account for up to 77% of all environmental losses. At the same time, the main volume of demand for products from oilseeds is formed by the EU countries, China and the USA - about 80%.

In a conversation with DOXA, an environmentalist who wished to remain anonymous says that tropical regions are subject to greater damage for several reasons.

“There are just so many species of plants and animals there. So if you have the same impact on the tropics and on the temperate latitudes, then more species will be affected in the tropics - simply because there are more of them there to begin with,” she notes.

In addition, she said, the tropics are more likely to have endemic ecosystems and endemic species—when a small area is home to a species that lives nowhere else. In temperate latitudes, a threat to one part of the range, as a rule, does not lead to the extinction of the species.

What can be done?

Answering the question about why oilseeds cause the main harm to biodiversity, DOXA’s interlocutor notes that their consumption is very high, and the volumes of cultivation of these crops are the largest.

The solution, according to the expert, lies in higher standards for growing oilseeds. So, according to her, regarding palm oil there is a standard RSPO - Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil:

“This is essentially a standard for growing sustainable palm oil. It contains requirements for the absence of logging in particularly valuable natural areas, and for the general treatment of these territories and local communities.”

Similar standards also exist for coffee and cocoa, but they are voluntary. Essentially, creating demand for sustainable products can help improve the situation with damage from oilseed plantations.

“If you certify certain plantations - check that everything is grown there correctly, sustainably and competently - then such products receive a certificate and label confirming compliance with sustainable standards. This marking is placed on the product. And when the end consumer chooses such products on the shelf, he supports them with rubles - he votes for a product produced according to these standards,” says Ecologist.

The expert adds that on the consumer side, choosing greener and more sustainable products can improve the overall situation. At the same time, the corporations themselves that use palm oil in their products (for example, cosmetics) establish a policy: they undertake to request such certificates from their suppliers. By doing so, they incentivize those suppliers who manage their plantations sustainably. This is the so-called corporate green procurement.

According to DOXA’s interlocutor, similar directives exist at the state and supranational levels. For example, in the European Union the corresponding directive was postponed until the end of 2026. It concerns five product categories, including palm oil, coffee and cocoa. It must be used to trace the entire supply chain and prove that new territories were not deforested during the production of the product. This is the third level - regulation by the state.

At the same time, as ecology concludes, such a model always needs verification and measurement of the “real environmental effect,” which can be measured after certification of suppliers has occurred.

“When you make an ecosystem more natural, it produces less. And a smaller harvest means that even more territory has to be produced and sown. That is, the story is very complex, you need to look at it from all sides. But I think this is a good way to regulate all this,” she says.