Cultivation of oil palm is the subject of controversy. It is necessary to place these debates in their global context. Three aspects of this context will be particularly developed: the rapid expansion of oil palm cultivation over the last three or four decades, the consequences of this expansion and the controversies and debates it raises, the initiatives to put palm oil in a sustainable development perspective.
The RSPO third roundtable meeting on sustainable palm oil (RT3) was the occasion for the official launch of principles and criteria adopted by the initiative to promote sustainable palm oil production and consumption. The problems raised by implementing those principles and criteria were widely debated in the main assembly or in break-out groups. The deliberations emphasized that all RSPO stakeholders needed to take an active role in the initiative, which should also be open to other categories of stakeholders: governments, research, certification organizations, etc Over a two-year transition phase, 14 voluntary members are to test the feasibility of such implementation on a true scale. A task force has been set up to adapt the principles and criteria to the particular case of smallholders.
In a context of discord between producers and environmental conservationists, RSPO is an initiative by stakeholders in the "Oil Palm" commodity chain to promote sustainable palm oil production. RSPO, using a multiple-stakeholder process, based its approach on drawing up a set of credible criteria that define the sustainability of palm oil production and which are acceptable to the different categories of stakeholders. The purpose of the second meeting (RT2) was to: i) propose a platform for exchanging views and experience between stakeholders from industrialized and emergent countries, to seek a clear definition of the "sustainable palm oil" concept; ii) identify practical projects for facilitating the implementation of good practices and for proceeding with their introduction; and: iii) strengthen cooperation and mutual assistance between stakeholders and international agencies to promote the production and use of "sustainable palm oil".
PROCORD will facilitate the collaboration of different groups, or stakeholders, to address problems and opportunities which are researchable at the global level by "promoting innovative global partnerships", covering the whole coconut commodity chain, from production to consumption. Background : Main challenges faced by the coconut sector: maintaining the copra sector by increasing its competitiveness and strengthening the profitability of coconut cultivation for growers - 12.8 million hectares, 95% on smallholdings under 4 hectares; preventing the risks of coconut plantations disappearance through lethal diseases; improving the income of producers who depend on coconut cultivation, especially in coastal and insular areas; restructuring the coconut commodity to develop end-uses other than copra and oil, with local added-value - 70% for domestic consumption in producing countries. Outputs : Agreement among all the stakeholders on a common agenda to address research issues in the coconut sector at a global level; participation of stakeholders not directly involved in research broadened the debate; Better cooperation and integration in and support for coconut research; Promotion of complementation and synergy of research activities, and sharing of resources, to avoid unnecessary duplication of research efforts; Translation of research results into usable development options. Activities : Six thematic groups work in close relationships with five regional networks: Southeast and East Asia, South Asia, South Pacific, Africa and the Indian Ocean, Latin America and the Caribbean : 1. Germplasm collection, conservation, evaluation and improvement. 2. Socio-economics and policy support. 3. Control of diseases and pests, especially the lethal diseases. 4. Productivity and sustainability of coconut-based agro-forestry systems. 5. Improvement of the efficiency and value-added benefits in post harvest processing and utilisation. 6. Marketing. Next steps : Consolidation of the technical working groups and preparation of common projects to be submitted for funding.
D'après l'étude EIPRO - Environmental Impact of PROducts (Tukker A. et al., 2006), réalisée dans le cadre de la Politique Intégrée des Produits (Commission Européenne, 2006), l'alimentation et les boissons contribuent significativement à l'impact environnemental généré par la consommation des européens (de 20 à 30%) ; la viande et les produits carnés, puis dans une moindre mesure les produits laitiers, étant les principaux contributeurs. La charge environnementale des produits alimentaires d'origine animale est principalement associée à leur production agricole (Foster C. et al., 2006) ; il est cependant intéressant de souligner qu'il existe des leviers d'amélioration environnementale à chaque étape du cycle de vie des produits alimentaires, y compris lors de leur transformation (Roy et al., 2009). A ce titre, comme l'explique Jungbluth (2000), l'industrie agroalimentaire peut directement agir sur trois niveaux de prise de décision environnementale, dont la transformation. L'étude IMPRO-meat & dairies - environmental IMprovement of PROducts (Weidema B. P. et al., 2008), réalisée en complément de l'étude EIPRO, va également dans ce sens. Parmi les voies qu'elle propose pour améliorer les performances environnementales de la viande et des produits laitiers, elle recommande de réduire les consommations énergétiques à chaque étape du cycle de vie de ces produits, y compris lors de leur transformation industrielle. L'objectif de cet article est de présenter les deux grandes étapes d'une démarche visant à améliorer les performances environnementales d'un procédé : 1- L'évaluation environnementale du procédé ; 2- L'éco-conception du procédé intégrant les leviers d'amélioration environnementale identifiés lors de l'évaluation. Cette présentation sera illustrée par la retranscription des travaux réalisés dans le cadre du projet de recherche ECOPROM 1
D'après l'étude EIPRO - Environmental Impact of PROducts (Tukker A. et al., 2006), réalisée dans le cadre de la Politique Intégrée des Produits (Commission Européenne, 2006), l'alimentation et les boissons contribuent significativement à l'impact environnemental généré par la consommation des européens (de 20 à 30%) ; la viande et les produits carnés, puis dans une moindre mesure les produits laitiers, étant les principaux contributeurs. La charge environnementale des produits alimentaires d'origine animale est principalement associée à leur production agricole (Foster C. et al., 2006) ; il est cependant intéressant de souligner qu'il existe des leviers d'amélioration environnementale à chaque étape du cycle de vie des produits alimentaires, y compris lors de leur transformation (Roy et al., 2009). A ce titre, comme l'explique Jungbluth (2000), l'industrie agroalimentaire peut directement agir sur trois niveaux de prise de décision environnementale, dont la transformation. L'étude IMPRO-meat & dairies - environmental IMprovement of PROducts (Weidema B. P. et al., 2008), réalisée en complément de l'étude EIPRO, va également dans ce sens. Parmi les voies qu'elle propose pour améliorer les performances environnementales de la viande et des produits laitiers, elle recommande de réduire les consommations énergétiques à chaque étape du cycle de vie de ces produits, y compris lors de leur transformation industrielle. L'objectif de cet article est de présenter les deux grandes étapes d'une démarche visant à améliorer les performances environnementales d'un procédé : 1- L'évaluation environnementale du procédé ; 2- L'éco-conception du procédé intégrant les leviers d'amélioration environnementale identifiés lors de l'évaluation. Cette présentation sera illustrée par la retranscription des travaux réalisés dans le cadre du projet de recherche ECOPROM 1
It is impossible to see a hundred years into the future. So, how can we imagine what will become of commodity crops in Malaysia by 2100? Yet, worldwide, these commodity crops provide a living for hundreds of millions of people: how they evolve will have considerable economic, social and environmental consequences for many countries. It is therefore worth trying to steer that future rather than submitting to it. We adopted a three-stage approach to launch our deliberations on possible futures: an historical approach, an analysis of the current context, and hypotheses on possible developments. The historical approach draws lessons from a study of commodity crops up to the 20th century, taking the example of the cotton and palm oil sectors. The analysis of the current context brings out variables that are important for understanding the current situation and whose evolution could play a decisive role in future changes. Lastly, we propose imagining the future from three angles: the first, a trend hypothesis, prolongs the current major trends, with progressive and constructed changes; the second, a disaster hypothesis, describes certain key variables that are subject to sudden and imposed disruptions, and which could have serious repercussions for commodity crops; the third hypothesis is a positive fiction scenario applied to the palm oil sector, with severe but controlled and constructed breaks with trends. The conclusion draws lessons and identifies the limitations of the exercise, and proposes avenues for further deliberation. In order to construct the desired changes and keep abreast of foreseeable developments, it is essential beforehand to carry out a fine analysis of the variables of the context, their interrelations, and mechanisms for monitoring what becomes of them. Such an analysis requires the active participation of stakeholders in the sectors and players in the global context, some of whom have already undertaken foresight exercises: initially, it would be worth bringing together their results with a view to a true international foresight study.
The cultivation of oil palm has become emblematic of the trade-off between development and conservation that agricultural commodities have to face: matching an increasing global demand while preserving the capacity of land to provide ecosystems services, and preserving natural forests. Towards the aim of providing solutions to such controversial issues, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) was created in 2004 as a business-to-business initiative bringing together NGOs and private stakeholders under a voluntary certification scheme. The forces and weaknesses of RSPO are related to its business-to-business origin and intrinsic nature. Principles and criteria were designed to provide a shared framework for stakeholders who are willing to voluntarily commit themselves towards a sustainable palm oil production but not as a detailed methodology and control points to actually assess the impacts. The RSPO principles and criteria thus need to be revisited and associated with complementary diagnosis steps integrating the broad diversity of oil palm-based cropping systems and the constraints these systems have to face. Our strategy is: . To provide science-based knowledge and tools to ensure the sustainability of production systems or to implement new sustainable systems . To involve stakeholders in the innovation process through multi-agent modeling or workshops . To identify obstacles and bottlenecks and analyze whether they are related to some inherent incapacity of oil palm cropping systems to adapt or/and to insufficient efforts in making knowledge and tools accessible to end-users The generation of multidisciplinary research networks which are able to deliver science-based products of direct interest for end-users is now of paramount importance.
Submillimeter rotational lines of H2O are a powerful probe in warm gas regions of the interstellar medium (ISM), tracing scales and structures ranging from kiloparsec disks to the most compact and dust-obscured regions of galactic nuclei. The ortho-H2O(423 - 330 line at 448 GHz, which has recently been detected in a local luminous infrared galaxy, offers a unique constraint on the excitation conditions and ISM properties in deeply buried galaxy nuclei because the line requires high far-infrared optical depths to be excited. In this letter, we report the first high-redshift detection of the 448 GHz H2O(423-330) line using ALMA in a strongly lensed submillimeter galaxy (SMG) at z = 3.63. After correcting for magnification, the luminosity of the 448 GHz H2O line is ∼106 L⊙ . In combination with three other previously detected H2O lines, we build a model that resolves the dusty ISM structure of the SMG, and find that it is composed of a ∼1 kpc optically thin (optical depth at 100 μm τ100 ∼ 0.3) disk component with a dust temperature Tdust ≈ 50 K that emits a total infrared power of 5 × 1012 L⊙ with a surface density ςIR = 4 × 1011 L⊙ kpc-2, and a very compact (0.1 kpc) heavily dust-obscured (τ100 ≳ 1) nuclear core with very warm dust (100 K) and ςIR = 8 × 1012 L⊙ kpc-2. The H2O abundance in the core component, XH2O ∼ (0.3-5) × 10-5, is at least one order of magnitude higher than in the disk component. The optically thick core has the characteristic properties of an Eddington-limited starburst, providing evidence that radiation pressure on dust is capable of supporting the ISM in buried nuclei at high redshifts. The multicomponent ISM structure revealed by our models illustrates that dust and molecules such as H2O are present in regions that are characterized by highly differing conditions and scales, extending from the nucleus to more extended regions of SMGs. ; With funding from the Spanish government through the "María de Maeztu Unit of Excellence" accreditation (MDM-2017-0737)
