Trends in global palm oil sustainability research

Published Date
Journal of Cleaner Production
1 August 2015, Vol.100:140–149, doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.03.051

Author 

• Sune Balle Hansen ^a,,
• Rory Padfield ^b
• Khadijah Syayuti ^b
• Stephanie Evers ^c
• Zuriati Zakariah^b
• Sharifah Mastura ^d

• aUTM Palm Oil Research Center, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur Campus, Jalan Semarak, 54100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
• bMalaysia–Japan International Institute of Technology, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur Campus, Jalan Semarak, 54100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
• cUniversity of Nottingham Malaysia Campus, Jalan Broga, Semenyih, Selangor, Malaysia
• dInstitute of Climate Change, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Jalan Reko, 43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia

Received 19 September 2014. Revised 17 March 2015. Accepted 17 March 2015. Available online 24 March 2015. 

Highlights

• •
  Substantial increases are seen in ISI publications on palm oil sustainability.
• •
  Residue technology and use is the most published sustainability category.
• •
  Most sustainability categories are still under-researched.
• •
  There is a need for an increased multidisciplinary research approach.
• •
  Universities act as ‘anchor-institutions’ for sustainable development strategies.

Abstract

In the past decade, palm oil has risen to become the most produced and consumed vegetable oil in the world. Growth of commercial plantations in Southeast Asia and recent expansions in West Africa and Latin America have led to a growing call for the sustainable production of palm oil, driven to a large extent by concerns over the associated impacts of deforestation and biodiversity losses. This study investigates the academic response to the calls for the sustainable production of palm oil by identifying and analysing Thomson Reuters Institute for Scientific Information indexed palm oil sustainability related publications from 2004 to 2013. The results show that the total number of publications has increased exponentially from 11 in 2004 to 713 by 2013. However, this growth is shown to be carried mainly by research within technical aspects of palm oil residue use; publications in the categories of land use & land use change, biodiversity and socio-economic aspects have increased, but the growth has been markedly slower. It is thus argued that there is currently an imbalance in research strategies since the focus towards technical topics is at odds with the major sustainability issues raised about palm oil production. To address the current imbalance in palm oil research, this study proposes a holistic framework for palm oil sustainability research with the aim of achieving multidisciplinary studies and emphasizing collaboration between industry and academia. Research sponsors and public bodies in charge of science, social science and technology research frameworks will thus benefit from improved understanding of where research and development resources can be allocated to facilitate the transition towards improved sustainability.

Keywords

Palm oil

Sustainability

Industry–university collaboration

Publications

Trends

Bibliometric

Abbreviations

ARPOS, Academic Research on Palm Oil Sustainability (Malaysian Research Network)

GHG, Greenhouse Gases

HCS, High Carbon Stock

HCV, High Conservation Value

iLUC, Indirect Land Use Change

ISI, Institute for Scientific Information

LCA, Life Cycle Assessment

LUC, Land Use Change

LULUC, Land Use & Land Use Change

POME, Palm Oil Mill Effluent

---

Fig. 1.

Fig. 2.

Fig. 3.

Fig. 4.

Fig. 5.

Fig. 6.

Fig. 7.

 Table 1

Table 1.

Fig. 8.

Fig. 9.

Fig. 10.

Fig. 11.

Fig. 12.

Fig. 13.

• ∗ 
  Corresponding author. Tel.: +60 3 2203 1406.

Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

For further details log on website :
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652615002723