21/11/2011 (PhysOrg.com) - Environmentalists have warned that an effort to encourage the sustainable production of palm oil launched several years ago has not kept pace with expanding cultivation driven by rising demand.

Workers load palm oil fruits onto a lorry at a plantation in Bintulu Sarawak in September 2011.

The edible oil is a key ingredient in soap and everyday foods ranging from peanut butter to sweets but its cultivation is one of the biggest threats to the world's dwindling rainforests.

The issue will loom large this week at the annual meeting of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil from November 22-24 in key producer Malaysia.

"Buyers of sustainable palm oil need to buy more. Retailers, manufacturers must up their purchases. We need to walk the talk and now buy the palm oil we have long demanded," Adam Harrison, agriculture policy specialist with WWF, told AFP.

Despite some progress, major users of palm oil are not making enough effort to source and buy sustainably produced oil, while incentives for green production remain inadequate, green groups say.

The mixing of global supply chains also hampers efforts to identify sustainably produced oil.

Growers produced 5.2 million tonnes of certified sustainable palm oil (CSPO) -- accounting for about 10 percent of world supply -- last year but only about 56 percent of it was purchased.

Palm oil represents about 35 percent of the global vegetable oil market and production is expected to double in the next 40 years due to its versatility, relatively high oil yields compared to alternatives, and economic importance to local communities.

Environmentalists say the consequences for rainforests in major producers Malaysia and Indonesia -- which account for 85 percent of world production -- and other producing nations will be dire unless the situation changes.

Virgin forests are typically cleared to make way for palm plantations that stretch to the horizon in many parts of Malaysia and Indonesia.

The forest loss contributes to climate change and further imperils threatened species like the orangutan while land disputes between local communities and large palm producers seeking to expand cultivation are rising.