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research center staffed by Indonesian and German scientists is claiming that oil palms are not as damaging to the environment as they are being depicted.

The Collaborative Research Center (CRC) 990 in Jambi found that, for example, an oil palm plantation’s water consumption was comparable with that of a dense forest.

“The only problem is that soil infiltration capability is reduced, resulting in erosion, but it can be solved by making trenches between palm trees,” said Bambang Irawan, dean of Forestry School at the University of Jambi.

Speaking to a group of ambassadors and representatives from European Union member states on Tuesday in Jambi, he said the research was part of a larger project by the CRC 990, which consisted of researchers from Jambi University, the Bogor Instiute of Agriculture (IPB) and Tadulako University.

The CRC also involves researchers from Germany’s University of Göttingen, as the center is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).

Bambang said the CRC had 25 separate sub-projects and had published more than 80 papers in reputable international and national journals. Bambang also offered a solution to another oil palm plantation issue, a lack of biodiversity, by moving from a monoculture to a mixed one by also planting hardwood trees such as stinky bean trees.

“There are water basins in the plantation with low palm oil yields, so they can be used for centers of biodiversity where birds and other animals can live,” he said. The EU envoys were brought to a plot of land where such a biodiversity center was being established.

Meanwhile, the president director of state-owned plantation firm PTPN IV, Ahmad Haslan Saragih, said his company was committed to testing the mixed design on 1,000 hectares of the company’s 42,000 ha of land across Sumatra.

“The number of palm trees will be reduced by 10 percent, but we’re aiming to increase productivity by 30 percent by using sustainable fertilization,” he said.

PTPN IV, which hosts the CRC, has been using organic fertilizers from manure from its 1,300 head of cattle, which are fed with palm fronds. The manure is used to improve soil texture and nutrition.

Another issue associated with oil palm plantations concerns carbon monoxide emissions, as IPB researcher Surya Tarigan said that young palm trees do emit more carbon monoxide but it was being absorbed by the older trees during photosynthesis.

Surya told the visiting EU envoys that he had compared a two-year-old palm tree with a 12-year-old one — palm trees can live from 20 to 25 years.

The Foreign Ministry and several related agencies have invited ambassadors and representatives from EU member states on an excursion to plantation sites to make their own observations this week.

The initiative comes amidst efforts by European lawmakers to table legislation that seeks to phase out the use of palm oil in motor fuels, inevitably affecting Indonesia’s palm oil exports to Europe, which takes up to 18 percent of Indonesia’s total exports. Europe is the world’s second largest importer of palm oil after India. EU Ambassador to Indonesia Vincent Guerend has said there has been no discussion an outright ban of palm oil in Europe, but he said there were concerns about sustainability. In an ongoing legal discussion, he said, the European Parliament was trying to determine whether biofuels made from palm oil could be considered renewable energy.

“Companies could continue to use biofuel coming from palm oil, but it will not be considered renewable energy,” he said.

Palm oil products for other purposes would still be accepted.

Meanwhile, the Foreign Ministry’s head of policy analysis and development, Siswo Pramono, said the CRC was part of Indonesia’s effort to engage with the EU to convince it that Indonesia was serious about palm oil sustainability.

“The CRC, which resulted from cooperation between Indonesia and Germany, is proof of our effort to strengthen cooperation,” he said.

Indonesia is the biggest producer and consumer of palm oil, Siswo said, “so a palm oil center of excellence should be located here, where we can develop it with universities in Europe. I think that could help us to convince them.”

Siswono added that Indonesia also engaged with European industries especially those that depend heavily on palm oil, and with other legislatures.