WHAT IS THE PROBLEM
WITH PALM OIL ?
Borneo is located just below the equator, between the Malay Peninsula and the Philippines. Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia are the three territories and the third largest island in the world. Environmental problems caused by palm oil are occurring on the island of Borneo.
Palm oil is an edible vegetable oil that comes from the fruit of oil palm trees.
Each of the 30 kg fruit bunches is packed with hundreds to about 2,000 fruits, and
Two types of oil can be produced; crude palm oil comes from squeezing the fleshy fruit, and palm kernel oil which comes from crushing the kernel, or the stone in the middle of the fruit.
The production volume is high throughout the year, the price is low, and the usage is diverse. Palm oil is an excellent vegetable oil that supports our daily lives. But it's not a good thing. Because the increase in palm oil production is directly related to the decrease in rainforest.
Oil palm grows only in the tropics just below the equator.
Since the growing conditions overlap with the distribution of rainforests, the only way to develop oil palm plantations is to cut down the rainforests.
Borneo used to have vast lowland rainforests.
Tropical rainforests and peat swamp forests, which have remained unchanged for more than 15 million years, have lost as much as 40% of the total area of Borneo in just 50 years with the development of plantations.
Photo by Nakanishi Nobuo
Photo by Nakanishi Nobuo
Rare wild animals that have lost their place of life due to the narrowing of their living sphere due to the tropical rainforests that live in them are on the verge of extinction.
There are also frequent tragic incidents in which Borneo elephants and orangutans enter plantations and are treated as vermin and captured or killed.
Pollution of land and water by pesticides as well as animals is a serious cause of health damage to local peaple.
Nowadays, large-scale forest fires that occur during development are also a big problem.
The huge amount of smoke that can be photographed from artificial satellites is called haze, which causes health hazards to people in neighboring countries and has a huge impact on the lives of wildlife.
There is no doubt that palm oil is an important vegetable oil for both producing and consuming countries.
But on the other hand, it is also true that it's a vegetable oil that is linked to global environmental problems.
Photo by Nakanishi Nobuo
Photo by Nakanishi Nobuo
Agroforestry
At first, I planted tree seedlings and planted trees, but I thought that it would be difficult to make a big change that would not last.
At that time, I learned that there is an endangered Coffee liberica coffee variety on Borneo.
And coffee berries called coffee cherries are fruits that animals such as orangutans love.
The cherry are eaten by animals, and the seeds are all-purpose coffee trees that humans can drink as coffee, and we decided to plant them by a method called "agroforestry."
Agroforestry is instead of single-cultivation, where forests are cut open to create fields as in the past, various plants and trees are planted together, without deforestation.
It is a method that you can harvest while regenerating the forest.
Palm oil, which is used in many processed products, is used by people all over the world, so I thought it would be difficult to eliminate and replace palm plantations right away.
However, it may be possible not to increase the number of palm plantations (land contaminated with pesticides) any more! ?? Since 2017, we have been conducting environmental activities by agroforestry.
Selling locally harvested beans in Japan and abroad,
We aim to create a new source of income for local people to replace palm oil, which is the cause of tropical forest destruction, and to achieve both environmental conservation and the livelihoods of local residents.
And now, we are importing and selling local liberica coffee beans to Japan.
Organic
Coffee beans are all organic products grown organically.
Vegan
All of them are Vegan compatible, including the coffee flavors we sell.