Environmental Management for Sustainable Development Reading Response

This assignment presents a student's reading response to several articles concerning environmental management and sustainable development, with a particular focus on the palm oil industry. The student summarizes the main arguments of each article, including discussions on linking knowledge with action for sustainability, the ecological impact of palm oil production, and the conflicts arising from its expansion. The response also reflects on the readings, offering critical perspectives on the presented solutions, such as using non-forest lands for palm oil cultivation, and questioning the comprehensiveness of proposed approaches to environmental challenges. The student emphasizes the importance of considering various factors beyond simply trusting information, especially when dealing with complex issues like environmental pollution and deforestation. Finally, the student provides a reflection on the role of government and stakeholders in mitigating deforestation, and the need for viable plans to enforce anti-deforestation efforts.

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Environmental Management for Sustainable Development
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Institution
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Reading response
Summary: pursuing sustainability by linking knowledge with action
The author in chapter five stresses on the importance of linking knowledge with action. This is
because sustainability demands a lot of knowledge for the necessary actions to be taken. Trust is
the answer to the dilemma of how knowledge is influential. Users are more likely to trust new
knowledge and act on it if it meets the criteria of saliency, credibility and legitimacy.
Summary: become less damaging
The article begins by acknowledging that palm oil production is south East Asia is very
profitable but ecologically disastrous. The author addresses the dilemma by citing a publication
by Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) which concludes that the problem is not
the crop itself, but how it is produced (Laurance, William Jeffre and Kenneth 107-109). The
author seemingly provide a solution to how the crop is produced by suggesting the crop to be
planted on savannas and degraded land. This would exempt the forest lands and hence reduce the
current rapid deforestation. The major take away from the cited publication is not to confuse the
crop with the people who develop it. further , the author identifies the profitability of the crop as
the major cause why farmers grow it a lot.
Summary: violent cost of the global palm oil boom
The author begins by telling how an activist was murdered by a plantation company adding to
the tally of the palm oil related murders. The author further narrates why palm oil is so valuable
and if we can do without .it was a replacement for Trans fats and thus used in processed foods
and as biofuel (McMichael, 689).The author states that palm oil has led to a lot of income but
also has resulted to environmental degradation due to deforestation. Throughout the rest of the
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article the author narrates how palm oil has sparked conflicts between environmental activists
and beneficiaries of the palm oil business.
Summary: quandary with palm oil
The author argues that if the coconut or the likes of olive trees could produce the same desired
value, we would not be talking about palm oil. From India to Philippines every person craves to
join the bandwagon of palm oil business (Scott, 19).Their ideology is easy, they claim palm oil
thrives best in tropical countries compared to other vegetable oils which only do so annually
while palm oil is a perennial plant, hence saving labor cost of replanting every annual season.
Summary: Can the production of palm oil be stopped?
With the accelerating rate of deforestation and global carbon emissions increase in countries like
Indonesia, it’s a dilemma that use of palm oil which is green energy source, cheap and its rising
demand now brings conflict of interest. Not forgetting palm oil requires less space, less farm
inputs, and all these benefits are hard to dismiss.
Reflection: pursuing sustainability by linking knowledge and action
The chapter purports that trusting information is needed for actions to be taken. This approach is
not comprehensive because there are many other factors that would determine acting on
knowledge. Take for example there is a new technology that is being invented to curb
environmental pollution (Mekhilef, Siga & Saidur,1937). The fact that the technology is new
shows it has not being implemented anywhere and proven to work in the longterm.so in my
opinion trusting the information is not enough to ascertain if knowledge is actionable. Other
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articles and books discussing this topic take a broader approach in determining actionable
knowledge for environmental management. Technologies and innovations are not alone to curb
environmental pollution.
Reflection: become less damaging
The eco business article begins by identifying palm oil production as very profitable. This is the
reason why its cultivation is and will continue to be on the rise. But at what price? The massive
cultivation of the crop leads to deforestation which leads to environmental degradation. The
provided solution is to instead use non forest lands to cultivate the crop (Wilcove,530).This
solution is good but it is rather vague according to me.my reasoning is, as long as the crop is
highly profitable, big corporations will still cultivate it and continue to deforest. The savannahs
cannot provide the same yields due to lack of fertility, favorable climate and rain water.
Reflection: violent cost of the global palm oil boom
The author points out how the production of palm oil has caused a lot of despite the profits
involved. The delivery of the content is good but no clear conclusion or lesson is articulated.
According to me the author would have weighed the pros and cons of palm oil production and
give a verdict. This is important because the pal oil business is becoming a time bomb waiting to
explode. The root of the problem is the money that is in the crop production. I would suggest an
alternative to the palm oil if regulation of the crop has failed (Shiva,116)
Reflection: quandary with palm oil
Many years of using crude oil as fuel source and the gross climatically effects of its use would
have us thinking that green energy is the real deal, so why does palm oil a green energy source
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be criticized with all the perceived benefits in food production, empowering developing
countries apart from the Middle East that provide energy to industrialized countries
Reflection: Can the production of palm oil be stopped?
The government in collaboration with other stakeholders should come up with viable plans that
can be implemented to help mitigate deforestation. In Indonesia the government has joined hands
with RSPO a nonprofit stakeholder to enforce ant deforestation order
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Works cited
Laurance, William F., Jeffrey Sayer, and Kenneth G. Cassman. "Agricultural expansion and its
impacts on tropical nature." Trends in ecology & evolution 29.2 (2014): 107-116.
McMichael, Philip. "The land grab and corporate food regime restructuring." The Journal of
Peasant Studies 39.3-4 (2012): 681-701.
Mekhilef, S., S. Siga, and R. Saidur. "A review aon palm oil biodiesel as a source of renewable
fuel." Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 15.4 (2011): 1937-1949.
Scott, James C. The art of not being governed: An anarchist history of upland Southeast Asia.
Nus Press, 2010.
Shiva, Vandana. Staying alive: Women, ecology, and development. North Atlantic Books, 2016.
Wilcove, David S., et al. "Navjot's nightmare revisited: logging, agriculture, and biodiversity in
Southeast Asia." Trends in ecology & evolution 28.9 (2013): 531-540.
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