Study says don’t blame U.S. biofuels for Indonesia and Malaysia deforestation

In Indiana, a Purdue University study shows that only a scant fraction, less than 1%, of the deforestation in Indonesia and Malaysia can be pinned on U.S. biofuel production and policy and that the expansion of palm oil production in those countries is not driven by biofuel production in the U.S.

Farzad Taheripour, a research associate professor of agricultural economics at Purdue said, “The amount is not significant. We’re talking about thousands of hectares amidst the millions that have been cleared for oil palm plantations and production of other commodities in Malaysia and Indonesia.”

They based their research using the GTAP-BIO model, which included a more comprehensive look at demand for all types of vegetable oils and fats impacted by U.S. biofuel policies rather than focusing on only soy and palm as past studies have done.

“Those analyses that limit their modeling framework to only palm and soy oils and ignore other types of vegetable oils and fats provide misleading information and exaggerate about the land use implications of the U.S. biofuels for (Malaysia and Indonesia),” the authors wrote.