77
A life cycle inventory (LCI) database, ecoinvent 2.2 (Jungbluth et al. 2007), and
LCI data prepared by ESU-services (Jungbluth et al. 2009) were used for the analysis. Impact categories used for the assessment are GHG emissions (global warming
potential; GWP), energy consumption (cumulative energy demand; CED), and land
occupation and transformation (ecosystem damage potential; EDP), which is based
on assessment of impacts of land use on species diversity (Koellner and Scholz
2008).
The results of the impact assessment are shown in Fig. 7.2. GHG emissions from
plant oil production processes illustrate that the environmental impact of palm
oil, especially palm oil without clear-cutting of trees, is relatively small. CED
(nonrenewable) demonstrates the same tendency. Since oil palm has the highest oil
production efficiency among the oil crops, the values of EDP (occupation) for palm
oil are lower than the other oils. However, there is a different trend in EDP (transformation). The value of soybean oil in Brazil is the highest. Although the value of
palm oil in Malaysia is high, the value of palm oil without clear-cutting is near zero.
In other words, the result is dependent on whether clear-cutting exits or not.
10000
15000
20000
25000
30000
1990
1995
2000
2005
2010
50000
75000
100000
125000
150000
1990
1 995
2000
2005
2010
a
40000
45000
50000
55000
60000
65000
1990
1995
2000
2005
2010
500000
525000
550000
575000
600000
1990
1995
2000
2005
2010
b
Fig. 7.1 Land use change in Indonesia and Brazil (Source: FAOSTAT). (a). Arable land in
Indonesia (1000 ha), forest area in Indonesia (1000 ha). (b) Arable land in Brazil (1000 ha), forest
area in Brazil (1000 ha)
7 Land Use Change Impacts: National and Regional Scales