Coconut Oil vs Palm Oil: Which is Worse for Biodiversity?

Palm oil has earned a bad reputation for causing deforestation, destroying the habitats of Orangutans, pygmy elephants, and the Sumatran rhino. But a recent study says coconut production poses five times greater threat than palm oil to biodiversity. 

The research, which was led by Erik Meijaard, the chairman of the Palm Oil Task Force of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), was published on July 6 in Current Biology. 

The study had since sparked a lively debate on social media as critics claimed that the authors were presenting dubious statistics and are attempting to whitewash palm oil. This posing fear that the study might be used to undermine efforts against unsustainable oil palm practices in Indonesia.

The study cites that 12.3 million hectares around the world are devoted to coconuts, while oil palm is cultivated in 18.9 million hectares. 

 The number of species under threat from the cultivation of seven vegetable crops were listed and divided by global production. The study concluded that for one million tons of coconut oil produced, 20.3 species are threatened. Meanwhile, sunflower oil has threatened 0.05 hectares, while olive oils and palm oil threatened 4.1 and 3.8 species, respectively.

READ MORE: More and More Pesticide Mixtures From Waterways Are Being Discharged Into the Great Barrier Reef  

The paper's supplementary information, however, cited that the coconut's number is 18.3. When asked about the difference, the co-author Jesse Abrams of the University of Exeter admitted that there is indeed an error in their calculation, and they would ask the journal to correct. 

When asked why the threatened species of the coconut is very high, Meijaard explained that coconut is grown on tropical islands where a remarkable number of endemic species thrive.

Meijaard lists the following species as threatened by coconut palm: Marianne white-eye (Zosterops semiflavus), a bird in Seychelles; Ontong Java flying fox (Pteropus howensis) of the Solomon Islands, It also claims that coconut plantation causes a threat to the Balabac mousedeer (Tragulus nigricans), which is endemic to the Philippines, and the Sangihe tarsier (Tarsius sangirensis), a primate and Cerulean paradise flycatcher (Eutrichomyias rowleyi), a small primate and a bird endemic to Sangihe, respectively.

Environmental impacts of other vegetable oil are impaired by shortsightedness and double standards, the authors say. The millions of songbirds killed during olive oil harvest in Spain, for example, merited little attention.

ALSO READ: Worldwide Methane Emissions Reach Record-High Due to Fossil Fuels and Certain Farming 

Critics, however, say that the study is misleading. According to Meine van Noordwijk, a senior research fellow at the World Agroforestry Center, most of the species threatened by the coconut palm are from small island nations that provide only 8 percent of the global production of coconut oil. Indonesia, Philippines, and India are where 80 percent of the coconut oils are sourced. Coconuts are often intercropped with other crops, so it is difficult to assess the harm done by the coconut.

Sheherazade, a field biologist from Indonesia, said that there is a need for a finer spatial analysis to determine which crop causes deforestation. But he also cited that the study is different from what is commonly cited: palm oil threatens 17 species per million hectares of the cultivated crop, while coconut oil only threatens 5.3. Other critics also point that palm oil production is expanding faster.

Meijaard said that quantifying species on the context of oil produced is more relevant than per hectare covered by the crop because it is the consumers that determine the demand.

READ NEXT: Ancient Patagonia Communities Offer Insights on Adapting to Climate Change