How much land is cleared every year for palm oil?

How much land is cleared every year for palm oil?

Q. How much land/forest is cleared every year for oil palm plantations? A. It has been suggested that up to 300 football fields of forest are cleared every hour.

How often is palm oil harvested?

Palm oil can be harvested 12 months of the year. Each tree can produce 10 tonnes of fresh fruit bunches per hectare.

How much rainforest is destroyed each day for palm oil?

Today, rainforest area the equivalent of 300 soccer fields is being destroyed every hour. This gives rise to numerous problems for the climate, environment, and people living in the forest: CO2 emissions – In preparing rainforest land for a palm oil plantation, the most valuable trees are cut down and removed first.

How many forests are cut down for palm oil?

It states that 239 million hectares of forests were cut down during the studied period, mostly in the tropics or subtropics: 91 million hectares in Latin America; 73 million in sub-Saharan Africa; 44 million in Southeast Asia.

How much land does palm oil destroy?

Some studies suggest that palm oil has played a very small role in global forest loss. One study suggests that palm oil is responsible for around 2% of global tree loss. Another suggests it is responsible for only 0.2% of intact forest loss.

How long does it take to grow a palm oil tree?

4 to 6 years
Mature palm oil plantation Oil palms are able to produce fruit for harvest within 4 to 6 years of planting, if fertilized well.

What percentage of the Earth’s land area is forested?

Forests cover 31 percent of the global land area.

Is palm oil the biggest cause of deforestation?

Palm oil has been and continues to be a major driver of deforestation of some of the world’s most biodiverse forests, destroying the habitat of already endangered species like the Orangutan, pygmy elephant and Sumatran rhino.

How much land / forest is cleared every year for palm oil?

The amount of land cleared annually for pam oil plantations can be in the range from up areas equal to 300 soccer fields every hour is being cleared, that is only an hour, think about how much in a day, a month, a year, soon there will be no more forests to clear and just a massive plain of palm oil plantations.

Where does the majority of palm oil come from?

Where Does Palm Oil Come From? Palm trees grow best in humid, tropical climates, and the trees grown and cut down for palm oil primarily grow in Southeast Asia, Latin America and Africa. In fact, more than 80 percent of the world’s palm oil grows in Malaysia and Indonesia (which are both located in Southeast Asia), according to Gro Intelligence .

How many tons of palm oil does Unilever use?

According to its own figures, the Unilever Group alone consumes 1.6 million tons of palm oil every year (2008). One way consumers can protect the rainforest is to avoid palm oil. For a list of palm oil-free products, visit

How are palm oil plantations affecting the environment?

Today, rainforest area the equivalent of 300 soccer fields is being destroyed every hour. This gives rise to numerous problems for the climate, environment, and people living in the forest: CO 2 emissions – In preparing rainforest land for a palm oil plantation, the most valuable trees are cut down and removed first.