The Peruvian Palm Oil Producers’ Association (JUNPALMA) has promised to enter into a future agreement for sustainable and deforestation-free palm oil production. Peru will be the second country in South America after Colombia to make such a commitment so long as JUNPALMA honors the deforestation-free agreement.
The US-based National Wildlife Federation (NWF), in collaboration with the local government, growers, and local independent conservation organization Sociedad Peruana de Ecodesarrollo, secured the promise. They announced the agreement during IX Expo Amazonica – an event of great importance that is focused on the promotion and debate over the Peruvian Amazon’s sustainable development.
The announcement involved Peru’s Agriculture and Irrigation representatives presenting national government goals to develop deforestation-free agriculture with a focus on family farms and small producers to improve the well-being of the country’s producers.
Gregorio Saenz, JUNPALMA’s General Manager, said:
“The National Wildlife Federation and its local partner, Sociedad Peruana de Ecodesarrollo, have worked with Peruvian palm oil Producers’ Association (JUNPALMA) and the country’s government, especially the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation, for two years to get to this point, and we are committed to ensuring this agreement becomes a reality.”
According to NWF, Peru could be palm oil deforestation-free by 2021 (in accordance with the Joint Declaration of Intent signed with Norway and Germany to end deforestation by this date) if all goes as planned. The organization praised JUNPALMA’s new commitment to enter into an agreement for sustainable and deforestation-free palm oil production as a momentous win for wildlife and sustainable agriculture.
Kiryssa Kasprzyk, who led the National Wildlife Federation’s work, said:
“This commitment is a momentous development for the people of Peru and the global effort to confront climate change. It underscores that we can feed the world without hurting biodiversity or clear-cutting tropical forests.”
NWF’s spokesperson Mike Saccone told Mongabay that NWF doesn’t anticipate that the agreement will be disruptive to domestic or international markets. He said:
“Any oil palm that is growing before the agreed cutoff date can be maintained in production, and opportunities to improve productivity on existing land can be promoted. This is a first for Peru, and we don’t see this getting stopped. While the agreement would be a very new step… we don’t anticipate any major problems in obtaining a signed agreement.”
Scientists at Monitoring the Andean Amazon Project have been monitoring the situation of deforestation for many years now. Their analysis released in 2018 shows that of the 86,600 hectares (214,000 acres) of oil palm, 31,500 of them were a result of deforestation to make new plantations, which are approximately the size of about 59,000 football fields. The JUNPALMA agreement is set to be a key part of arresting this destruction.
