Oil palm is one of the world’s most rapidly expanding crops. Despite the recent economic slowdown, burgeoning demand for palm oil remains an important driver of deforestation in Southeast Asia, especially in Indonesia and Malaysia where over half of all the oil palm expansion from 1990 to 2005 occurred at the expense of native forest.
Yet few realize that oil palm could soon drive similar forest loss in Amazonia, the world’s largest expanse of tropical forest. In this paper the confluence of factors that could promote a sharp increase in oil palm agriculture in the region is briefly described. Although the crop is being established in various parts of Latin America, the paper focuses on Brazil, where geographical, political, and corporate forces appear particularly aligned to pursue the aggressive expansion of an oil palm industry. Authors argue that, contrary to prevailing public discourse in Brazil, oil palm expansion would constitute a serious threat to Amazonian ecosystems and their associated biodiversity.

By: R. A. Butler (Mongabay.com), W. F. Laurance (Smithsonian Tropical Research Inst)

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