JAKARTA – Oil palm plantations are superior to forests in terms of absorbing carbon dioxide (CO2) and producing oxygen, a research institution concluded recently.
The Palm Oil Agribusiness Strategic Policy Institute (PASPI) said that based on the research conducted by Henson (1999) one hectare of oil palm plantations can absorb 64.5 tons of net carbon dioxide and produce 18.7 tons of oxygen every year. But one hectare of forests can only absorb around 42.4 tons of net carbon dioxide and around 7.1 tons of net oxygen.
“Henson research has proven that the oil palm plantations are superior to forests in terms of carbon dioxide absorption from the atmosphere and oxygen production,” PASPI reported through the website of Palm Oil Indonesia.
PASPI also found through its study that generally the tropical forests have already reached a condition of steady state, in which the rate of photosynthesis and the rate of respiration are already in balance. Conversely, in oil palm plantations the rate of photosynthesis is much higher compared to the rate of respiration. That means Indonesian oil palm plantations at the size of 16.3 million hectares can absorb CO2 from the atmosphere at 1,035.3 million tons every year.
Besides processing the CO2 emissions to oxygen, carbon and water through the process of photosynthesis, the carbon is reabsorbed and stored through the mechanism of bio-sequestration. Through the process, the carbon is stored in biomass, which consists of biomass inside the oil palm trees and that in its underground rooting system.
“The mechanism of carbon biosequestration in oil palm plantations happens all year round and will continue raising stocks of biomass and carbon until reaching the age of 25 years old,” the Palm Oil Indonesia website reported.
The study of Khasanah (2019) in the PASPI report reveals that the average stock of carbon in the biomass above ground of the Indonesian oil palm plantations reaches 40 tons per hectare. With a total acreage of Indonesian oil palm plantations at 16.3 million hectares, then the total stored carbon stock amounts to 652 million tons.
“It means at least 652 million tons of CO2 from the atmosphere had been absorbed and stored in the biomass above the ground of Indonesia’s oil palm plantation areas (excluded the biomass undergound),” it stated.
Source: wartaekonomi.co.id
