A  Palm oil is an edible oil derived from the fruit of the African oil palm tree, and is currently the most consumed vegetable oil in the world. It's almost certainly in the soap we wash with in the morning, the sandwich we have for lunch, and the biscuits we snack on during the day. Why is palm oil so attractive for manufacturers? Primarily because its unique properties – such as remaining solid at room temperature – make it an ideal ingredient for long-term preservation, allowing many packaged foods on supermarket shelves to have 'best before' dates of months, even years, into the future. 

A 棕榈油是一种从非洲油棕榈树果实中提炼出来的食用油，是目前世界上消耗量最大的植物油。我们早上洗脸用的肥皂、午餐吃的三明治和白天吃的饼干几乎都含有棕榈油。为什么棕榈油对生产商如此有吸引力？主要是因为其独特的特性--如在室温下保持固态--使其成为长期保存的理想原料，这使得超市货架上的许多包装食品的 “最佳食用日期 ”可以达到数月甚至数年之后。

B  Many farmers have seized the opportunity to maximise the planting of oil palm trees. Between 1990 and 2012, the global land area devoted to growing oil palm trees grew from 6 to 17 million hectares, now accounting for around ten percent of total cropland in the entire world. From a mere two million tonnes of palm oil being produced annually globally 50 years ago, there are now around 60 million tonnes produced every single year, a figure looking likely to double or even triple by the middle of the century. 

B许多农民抓住机遇，最大限度地种植油棕榈树。从 1990 年到 2012 年，全球用于种植油棕榈树的土地面积从 600 万公顷增加到 1700 万公顷，目前约占全球耕地总面积的 10%。50 年前，全球棕榈油年产量仅为 200 万吨，而现在每年的产量约为 6000 万吨，到本世纪中叶，这一数字很可能翻一番甚至两番。

C  However, there are multiple reasons why conservationists cite the rapid spread of oil palm plantations as a major concern. There are countless news stories of deforestation, habitat destruction and dwindling species populations, all as a direct result of land clearing to establish oil palm tree monoculture on an industrial scale, particularly in Malaysia and Indonesia. Endangered species – most famously the Sumatran orangutan, but also rhinos, elephants, tigers, and numerous other fauna – have suffered from the unstoppable spread of oil palm plantations. 

C  然而，保护主义者将油棕榈种植园的迅速蔓延视为主要问题的原因是多方面的。关于森林砍伐、栖息地破坏和物种数量减少的新闻报道数不胜数，所有这些都是开垦土地以建立工业规模的油棕榈树单一种植的直接结果，尤其是在马来西亚和印度尼西亚。濒危物种--最著名的是苏门答腊红毛猩猩，还有犀牛、大象、老虎和许多其他动物--都因油棕种植园势不可挡的扩张而遭受损失。

D 'Palm oil is surely one of the greatest threats to global biodiversity,' declares Dr Farnon Ellwood of the University of the West of England, Bristol. 'Palm oil is replacing rainforest, and rainforest is where all the species are. That's a problem.' This has led to some radical questions among environmentalists, such as whether consumers should try to boycott palm oil entirely. 

D 布里斯托尔西英格兰大学的法农-埃尔伍德博士宣称："棕榈油无疑是对全球生物多样性的最大威胁之一。棕榈油正在取代雨林，而雨林是所有物种的栖息地。这是一个问题。这在环保主义者中引发了一些激进的问题，比如消费者是否应该尝试完全抵制棕榈油。

Meanwhile Bhavani Shankar, Professor at London's School of Oriental and African Studies, argues, 'It's easy to say that palm oil is the enemy and we should be against it. It makes for a more dramatic story, and it's very intuitive. But given the complexity of the argument, I think a much more nuanced story is closer to the truth.' 

同时，伦敦东方和非洲研究学院教授巴瓦尼-尚卡尔（Bhavani Shankar）认为："说棕榈油是敌人，我们应该反对它，这很容易。这样的说法更有戏剧性，而且非常直观。但鉴于论证的复杂性，我认为一个更加细致入微的故事更接近真相。

E  One response to the boycott movement has been the argument for the vital role palm oil plays in lifting many millions of people in the developing world out of poverty. Is it desirable to have palm oil boycotted, replaced, eliminated from the global supply chain, given how many low-income people in developing countries depend on it for their livelihoods? How best to strike a utilitarian balance between these competing factors has become a serious bone of contention. 

E  抵制运动的一个回应是，棕榈油在帮助发展中国家数百万人摆脱贫困方面发挥着至关重要的作用。鉴于许多发展中国家的低收入者依赖棕榈油谋生，抵制、取代棕榈油，将其从全球供应链中淘汰是否可取？如何最好地在这些相互竞争的因素之间取得功利性的平衡，已成为一个严重的争论焦点。

F  Even the deforestation argument isn't as straightforward as it seems. Oil palm plantations produce at least four and potentially up to ten times more oil per hectare than soybean, rapeseed, sunflower or other competing oils. That immensely high yield – which is predominantly what makes it so profitable – is potentially also an ecological benefit. If ten times more palm oil can be produced from a patch of land than any competing oil, then ten times more land would need to be cleared in order to produce the same volume of oil from that competitor. 

F 即使是砍伐森林的论点也不像看起来那么简单。油棕种植园每公顷的产油量至少是大豆、菜籽、葵花籽或其他竞争油类的四倍，甚至可能高达十倍。巨大的高产--这也是油棕榈如此有利可图的主要原因--也可能带来生态效益。如果一片土地上生产的棕榈油比任何竞争油料多十倍，那么要想从竞争对手那里生产同样数量的油料，需要开垦的土地就要多十倍。

As for the question of carbon emissions, the issue really depends on what oil palm trees are replacing. Crops vary in the degree to which they sequester carbon – in other words, the amount of carbon they capture from the atmosphere and store within the plant. The more carbon a plant sequesters, the more it reduces the effect of climate change. As Shankar explains: '[Palm oil production] actually sequesters more carbon in some ways than other alternatives. […] Of course, if you're cutting down virgin forest it's terrible – that's what's happening in Indonesia and Malaysia, it's been allowed to get out of hand. But if it's replacing rice, for example, it might actually sequester more carbon.' 

至于碳排放问题，这个问题实际上取决于棕榈树取代的是什么。农作物固碳的程度各不相同，换句话说，就是从大气中捕捉并储存在植物体内的碳量而言。植物固碳越多，就越能减少气候变化的影响。正如尚卡尔所解释的那样： 棕榈油生产]实际上在某些方面比其他替代品固碳更多。[......]当然，如果你砍伐原始森林，那就太糟糕了--这就是印度尼西亚和马来西亚的情况，已经到了不可收拾的地步。但是，如果用它来替代水稻，实际上可能会固存更多的碳。

G  The industry is now regulated by a group called the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), consisting of palm growers, retailers, product manufacturers, and other interested parties. Over the past decade or so, an agreement has gradually been reached regarding standards that producers of palm oil have to meet in order for their product to be regarded as officially 'sustainable'. The RSPO insists upon no virgin forest clearing, transparency and regular assessment of carbon stocks, among other criteria. Only once these requirements are fully satisfied is the oil allowed to be sold as certified sustainable palm oil (CSPO). Recent figures show that the RSPO now certifies around 12 million tonnes of palm oil annually, equivalent to roughly 21 percent of the world's total palm oil production. 

G目前，该行业由一个名为 “可持续棕榈油圆桌会议”（RSPO）的组织监管，该组织由棕榈种植者、零售商、产品制造商和其他相关方组成。在过去的十多年里，人们逐渐就棕榈油生产商必须达到的标准达成了协议，这样他们的产品才能被正式认定为 “可持续 ”产品。RSPO 坚持不砍伐原始森林、透明度和定期评估碳储量等标准。只有完全满足了这些要求，才允许以认证可持续棕榈油（CSPO）的名义出售。最近的数据显示，RSPO 现在每年认证约 1200 万吨棕榈油，相当于全球棕榈油总产量的 21%左右。

H  There is even hope that oil palm plantations might not need to be such sterile monocultures, or 'green deserts', as Ellwood describes them. New research at Ellwood's lab hints at one plant which might make all the difference. The bird's nest fern (Asplenium nidus) grows on trees in an epiphytic fashion (meaning it's dependent on the tree only for support, not for nutrients), and is native to many tropical regions, where as a keystone species it performs a vital ecological role. Ellwood believes that reintroducing the bird's nest fern into oil palm plantations could potentially allow these areas to recover their biodiversity, providing a home for all manner of species, from fungi and bacteria, to invertebrates such as insects, amphibians, reptiles and even mammals. 

H人们甚至希望，油棕种植园可能不必像埃尔伍德所说的那样是无菌的单一种植园或 “绿色沙漠”。埃尔伍德实验室的最新研究表明，有一种植物可能会起到关键作用。鸟巢蕨（Asplenium nidus）以附生的方式生长在树上（这意味着它只依赖于树木的支撑，而不是养分），原产于许多热带地区，作为一种关键物种，它在那里发挥着重要的生态作用。埃尔伍德认为，将鸟巢蕨重新引入油棕种植园有可能使这些地区恢复生物多样性，为各种物种提供家园，从真菌和细菌到无脊椎动物，如昆虫、两栖动物、爬行动物甚至哺乳动物。