Sustainable palm oil: Understandings and practices in the Netherlands and Indonesia

Abstract

Vegetable oils have an abundance of uses, from biofuels to cosmetics and edibles. With these possible uses, vegetable oils have become one of the most traded commodities globally. Palm oil is the most produced vegetable oil and has been gaining a considerate amount of academic attention in recent years. A large array of academic literature exists about the sustainability challenges that arise from increased palm oil production and consumption. However, research that contributes to insights into the way sustainability is understood by actors within the supply chain and how they aim to deal with these sustainability challenges is limited. In this thesis, the understandings and practices of actors in the palm oil supply chain regarding sustainability are analysed. The empirical data used for this research consists of documents containing discourses about palm oil sustainability and qualitative, semi-structured interviews conducted in the Netherlands and Indonesia, with Dutch and Indonesian actors involved in the palm oil supply chain. It is analysed using Critical Discourse Analysis, which allows for an in-depth analysis of meanings and perceptions of concepts and is used to study practices and experiences from different actors. In this thesis, several remarkable findings have been made. First, the understandings of sustainability in the palm oil supply chain do not only differ between the Dutch and Indonesian actors but also among these actors several divergent understandings have been found. In the Netherlands, this was not clear at first sight, with almost all actors stating that they think palm oil is sustainable when it is certified according to Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) guidelines. After diving deeper into their understanding several differences were found. In Indonesia these differences were more apparent and led to the formation of three categories of understanding; “The RSPO understanding”, “The pillars of sustainability” understanding and “The RSPO is not enough” understanding”. Second, a very buyer-driven approach to practices is found by the Dutch actors. For example, they aim to stimulate demand for palm oil which is produced according to RSPO criteria. The Indonesian practices found are more diverse, for example, tackling issues with markets for conventional palm oil and finding opportunities in the supply chain to pressure these markets to adopt sustainability practices. Also, practices that address the issues in Indonesia have been found, such as tackling the land grabbing issues and challenges in the land allocation process.