Switzerland: Scientific research on palm oil

Published 2022년 1월 25일

Tridge summary

Researchers from EPFL and WSL Federal Institute have discovered that converting savannas into oil palm crops, without deforestation, can improve the carbon footprint of these plantations and reduce their environmental impact. The study, published in the journal Global Change Biology, found that using degraded savannas and pastures for oil palm cultivation can lead to a positive carbon balance, as these areas have few trees and do not contribute to deforestation. The research also demonstrated that by optimizing farming practices, more carbon can be sequestered, improving soil fertility and biodiversity. However, the authors stress the importance of prioritizing the conservation of savannas, given their biodiversity value.

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Original content

Scientists from EPFL and the WSL Federal Institute have studied the transformation of savannas into oil palm crops, an alternative that does not involve deforestation. They show that adapting farming methods would improve the carbon footprint of these plantations and help reduce their environmental impact (photo Union suisse des pays). In its current form, palm oil production contributes drastically to deforestation and the disappearance of biodiversity, creates social tensions and has a very heavy carbon footprint. But it is also a product used all over the world, with enormous demand, inexpensive and on which countless small producers in tropical zones depend, writes EPFL on Monday January 24 in a press release. As part of the "Oil Palm Adaptive Landscape" project funded by the Swiss National Fund and led by ETH Zurich, Juan Carlos Quezada, then a doctoral student at the Ecological Systems Laboratory (ECOS) at EPFL, and scientists from the Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and ...

Source: Agrihebdo