As part of this country’s commitment to eliminate deforestation worldwide, the Norwegian Parliament voted to ban the purchase of biofuels with palm products that do not demonstrate that they were produced sustainably.

As part of this country’s commitment to eliminate deforestation worldwide, the Norwegian Parliament voted to ban the purchase of biofuels with palm products that do not demonstrate that they were produced sustainably.
In June 2016, Norway became the first country in the world to ban deforestation. To this end, the Norwegians promised that all products in their markets would come from products with clean production chains. A first measure was to stop donations, contracts and national investments with companies that had ties to deforestation.
Now, the country takes a new step forward in the fight against deforestation, by approving the ban on the Norwegian biofuel industry from buying palm oil and other products associated with deforestation.
“The Norwegian Parliament decision sets an important precedent for other countries and underscores the need for serious reform to the global oil palm industry, ” said Nils Hermann Ranum of the conservation group Rainforest Foundation Norway after the decision.
He added “This is a victory for the forests and the climate” .
The palm industry, however, did not see the measure with such good eyes. Teresa Kok, Malaysia’s Minister of Agriculture and Industry announced that her country sees this measure as ” unfair, as it goes against free trade . It is certainly something that we will take very seriously” he said.
The minister said that the measure put at risk the talks for a free trade agreement between the European Union and her country, whose last round of negotiations began in May 2017.
For his part, Darrel Webber, the executive of Ronda for Sustainable Palm Oil, said that he asks Norway “not to be blinded by sentimentality.” “Instead, you should develop objective analysis, so that your good intentions to repair this problem do not drift, and instead cause further damage elsewhere.”
The oil palm industry – along with beef cattle and soy – have become the worst drivers of deforestation on the planet.
In September 2018, the Greenpeace organization released a report in which it noted that at least 25 palm oil exploiting companies, 20 of which are linked to international brands, were to blame for the disappearance of 1,300 square kilometers of jungle in Indonesia.
Multinational giants such as Colgate-Palmolive , General Mills, Hershey, Kelloggs , Kraft Heinz, L’Oreal , Mars, Mondelez, Nestlé , PepsiCo , Reckitt Benckiser and Unilever would be buying African palm oil whose origin would be related to the cutting and burning of the forest and, in addition, with the violation of human rights of indigenous peoples.
Following strong evidence presented by Greenpeace, Wilmar, the largest oil palm trader on the planet, promised that its supply chain would be completely clean.
However, there were strong protests in Indonesia, as the company did not say how it would do it or what specific measures it would take. Therefore, months later, Wilmar agreed to monitor via satellite all the farms from which he buys his oil , one of Greenpeace’s demands to take the company’s promises seriously.
Colombia is the fourth producer of palm oil in the world and the first in America.
Colombia has approximately 516,961 hectares planted, of which 430,884 hectares are in full production and 86,077 hectares have crops under development.
Production involves 160 municipalities in 21 departments of the country.
4,500 small-scale palm growers enjoy the greatest social and economic inclusion in Colombian agriculture, which represents 170,794 direct and indirect jobs that benefit thousands of Colombian families.
In the palm industry, 69 palm nuclei converge, bringing together 6,000 producers, and there are 133 strategic productive alliances between small, medium, and large-scale palm growers in the 4 palm areas.