Mohd Hanafiah Khayriyyah, Abd Mutalib Aini Hasanah, Miard Priscillia, Goh Chun Sheng, Mohd Sah Shahrul Anuar, Ruppert Nadine
School of Biological Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Penang, Malaysia.
Life Sciences, Macfarlane Burnet Institute, Melbourne, VIC 3004 Australia.
Sustain Sci. 2022;17(4):1639-1661. doi: 10.1007/s11625-021-01052-4. Epub 2021 Oct 15.
Palm oil (PO) is an important source of livelihood, but unsustainable practices and widespread consumption may threaten human and planetary health. We reviewed 234 articles and summarized evidence on the impact of PO on health, social and economic aspects, environment, and biodiversity in the Malaysian context, and discuss mitigation strategies based on the sustainable development goals (SDGs). The evidence on health impact of PO is equivocal, with knowledge gaps on whether moderate consumption elevates risk for chronic diseases, but the benefits of phytonutrients (SDG2) and sensory characteristics of PO seem offset by its high proportion of saturated fat (SDG3). While PO contributes to economic growth (SDG9, 12), poverty alleviation (SDG1, 8, 10), enhanced food security (SDG2), alternative energy (SDG9), and long-term employment opportunities (SDG1), human rights issues and inequities attributed to PO production persist (SDG8). Environmental impacts arise through large-scale expansion of monoculture plantations associated with increased greenhouse gas emissions (SDG13), especially from converted carbon-rich peat lands, which can cause forest fires and annual trans-boundary haze; changes in microclimate properties and soil nutrient content (SDG6, 13); increased sedimentation and change of hydrological properties of streams near slopes (SDG6); and increased human wildlife conflicts, increase of invasive species occurrence, and reduced biodiversity (SDG14, 15). Practices such as biological pest control, circular waste management, multi-cropping and certification may mitigate negative impacts on environmental SDGs, without hampering progress of socioeconomic SDGs. While strategies focusing on improving practices within and surrounding plantations offer co-benefits for socioeconomic, environment and biodiversity-related SDGs, several challenges in achieving scalable solutions must be addressed to ensure holistic sustainability of PO in Malaysia for various stakeholders.
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11625-021-01052-4.
棕榈油是重要的生计来源，但不可持续的做法和广泛的消费可能威胁人类和地球健康。我们回顾了234篇文章，总结了在马来西亚背景下棕榈油对健康、社会经济方面、环境和生物多样性影响的证据，并基于可持续发展目标（SDGs）讨论了缓解策略。关于棕榈油对健康影响的证据并不明确，对于适度消费是否会增加慢性病风险存在知识空白，但植物营养素的益处（可持续发展目标2）和棕榈油的感官特性似乎被其高比例的饱和脂肪所抵消（可持续发展目标3）。虽然棕榈油有助于经济增长（可持续发展目标9、12）、减贫（可持续发展目标1、8、10）、增强粮食安全（可持续发展目标2）、替代能源（可持续发展目标9）和长期就业机会（可持续发展目标1），但与棕榈油生产相关的人权问题和不平等现象仍然存在（可持续发展目标8）。环境影响源于与温室气体排放增加相关的单一栽培种植园的大规模扩张（可持续发展目标13），特别是来自转化的富含碳的泥炭地，这可能导致森林火灾和年度跨境烟雾；小气候特性和土壤养分含量的变化（可持续发展目标6、13）；斜坡附近溪流的沉积物增加和水文特性的变化（可持续发展目标6）；以及人类与野生动物冲突增加、入侵物种出现增加和生物多样性减少（可持续发展目标14、15）。生物虫害控制、循环废物管理、间作和认证等做法可以减轻对环境可持续发展目标的负面影响，而不妨碍社会经济可持续发展目标的进展。虽然专注于改善种植园内和周边做法的策略为社会经济、环境和生物多样性相关的可持续发展目标带来了共同效益，但在实现可扩展解决方案方面仍有几个挑战需要解决，以确保马来西亚棕榈油对各利益相关方的整体可持续性。
在线版本包含可在10.1007/s11625-021-01052-4获取的补充材料。
