Oils from crops such as coconut, palm oil and soybean are used in a range of applications, from cosmetics and makeup to margarine and spreads, and from medicines to animal feed. These oil crops, as they are known, are increasingly consumed and cultivated. This has an impact on the environment. But what exactly is that impact?
A research team led by Stephan Pfister, professor for quantitative sustainability assessment at ETH Zurich, examined this question. Specifically, the researchers studied the extent to which the increasing cultivation and consumption of oil crops are threatening animal and plant species worldwide. This is the world's first study looking at this issue.
The findings have been published in Nature Food.
"From the perspective of environmental protection, biodiversity loss is as big a problem as climate change," says Pfister, explaining the motivation behind the study. In it, the researchers analyzed global data on production, trade and land use over several decades, combining several models to gauge the influence of oil crops on biodiversity.
The researchers began by compiling global maps of oil crop cultivation based on satellite data, agricultural statistics and global data sets on cultivated land.
