The real cost of palm oil | Andika Putraditama

Summary

Summary of "The Real Cost of Palm Oil" by Andika Putraditama | TED Talks Daily

Episode Title: The Real Cost of Palm Oil
Host/Author: TED
Speaker: Andika Putraditama
Release Date: June 17, 2025
Location: TED Countdown's Dilemma event in Brussels, 2024

---

Introduction to the Issue

In his compelling talk, sustainability expert Andika Putraditama addresses the critical issue of deforestation driven by commodity production, particularly focusing on palm oil. Highlighting the immense scale of forest loss—equivalent to a landmass 1.5 times the size of the United States over the past three centuries—Andika emphasizes the indispensable role forests play in mitigating climate change.

Notable Quote:

"There’s no viable pathway for us to really mitigate climate change without really stopping the loss of our forest and without actually start protecting this massive natural carbon sink."
(04:15)

The Role of Forests in Climate Regulation

Andika begins by underscoring the importance of forests as the Earth's lungs, acting as vital carbon sinks that absorb significant amounts of CO₂. He points out that over a third of the world’s forests have been cleared, severely impacting global carbon emissions.

Notable Quote:

"The forests are the earth's lungs, and yet more than a third of the world's forests have been cleared in just the last 300 years."
(00:07)

Palm Oil and Its Impact on Deforestation

Palm oil production is identified as a major driver of deforestation, especially in Indonesia. Andika explains that palm oil is ubiquitous in everyday products, making its elimination impractical. This pervasive demand has led to the extensive clearing of forests and peatlands, which are rich in carbon.

Notable Quote:

"Almost all products in the shelves have something to do with palm oil one way or another."
(04:45)

Current Corporate Responses and Their Limitations

In response to deforestation, many companies have adopted "no deforestation" policies, ensuring that the palm oil they purchase does not contribute to forest loss. While this is a positive step, Andika argues that it is insufficient on its own.

Notable Quote:

"That’s only one side of the coin. The other side is that you have to start proactively protecting the existing forest and restoring those we have lost."
(05:30)

The Rimba Collective: A Solution

To address the funding gap in forest conservation, Andika introduces the Rimba Collective—a mechanism that enables companies to contribute financially to the protection and restoration of natural ecosystems proportionate to their raw material usage. This collective aims to scale conservation efforts and foster shared responsibility across supply chains.

Notable Quote:

"Rimba Collective allows companies to contribute funds to protect and restore the natural ecosystem proportionate to their raw material impact."
(06:10)

Implementation and Achievements

Since its inception three years prior, the Rimba Collective has successfully financed the conservation of approximately 220,000 hectares of forest in Southeast Asia. Andika emphasizes the collective’s goal to preserve half a million hectares over the next 25 years, simultaneously supporting local communities and endangered species.

Notable Quote:

"We are actively financing around 220,000 hectares of forest in Southeast Asia."
(07:50)

Challenges Faced

Andika candidly discusses the significant challenges in implementing large-scale forest conservation:

a. Supply Side Challenges

• Accessibility: Many conservation projects are in remote areas, requiring extensive travel and logistical planning.
• Local Partnerships: Identifying reliable local organizations capable of managing conservation efforts and navigating international certification systems is difficult.

Notable Quote:

"Finding good local organizations who can deliver robust conservation, who know the landscape, but also able to navigate a complex international certification system, is not easy."
(09:30)

b. Demand Side Challenges

• Corporate Buy-In: Some companies underestimate the costs and responsibilities of true conservation, viewing it as a short-term or low-cost endeavor.
• Sustainability Commitment: Ensuring long-term investment from companies rather than fleeting support is a persistent hurdle.

Notable Quote:

"Some companies think that conservation is cheap or view it as a short-term responsibility, which is wildly unrealistic."
(11:00)

Vision for the Future

Looking ahead, Andika advocates for a paradigm shift in how we perceive and finance conservation. He calls for integrating the true environmental costs of commodities into their pricing and ensuring that consumers' expenditures also support ecosystem preservation.

Notable Quote:

"Our money should not just be paying for raw ingredients, but also for the preservation of the natural ecosystems we all depend on."
(11:30)

Conclusion

Andika concludes by reiterating the ambitious yet necessary goal of conserving and restoring 500,000 hectares of forest as an initial step towards addressing the broader climate crisis. He envisions replicating the Rimba Collective model across other supply chains, such as fashion and rubber, to close the financing gap and foster large-scale environmental restoration.

Notable Quote:

"500,000 hectares is ambitious, but it’s just a fraction of what we need to do. It should be seen as a starting point of what is possible if actors across the supply chain work collectively."
(12:20)

---

Final Thoughts

Andika Putraditama's talk provides a thorough analysis of the intricate relationship between commodity production and deforestation, offering a pragmatic solution through the Rimba Collective. His insights highlight the urgency of collective action and sustained financial commitment to preserve the world's remaining forests and restore lost ecosystems.

---

Produced and Edited by the TED Audio Collective Team
For more information on TED's curation, visit ted.com/curationguidelines.

Transcript

[Elise Hu]

You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas and conversations to spark your curiosity every day. I'm your host, Elise Hu. You may have heard the phrase the forests are the earth's lungs, and yet more than a third of the world's forests have been cleared in just the last 300 years. A landmass approximately 1.5 times the size of the United States. The commodities that have been created from this deforestation, wood, palm oil, to name a couple are so ubiquitous in our world today that taking them out of production is nearly impossible. But for sustainability expert Andika Putradetama, there's no way to mitigate climate change without stopping the loss of the world through forests. In his 2024 talk, he shares his vision for preserving the forests we still have, restoring the ones we've lost, and what has to be done in order for us to not miss the forest for the trees.

[Chef]

Ready to order?

[Capital One Representative]

Yes. We're earning unlimited 3% cash back on dining and entertainment with a Capital One Saver Card.

[Chef]

So let's just get one of everything. Everything.

[Capital One Representative]

Fire. Everything. The Capital One Saver card is at table 27, and they're earning unlimited 3% cash back.

[Chef]

Yes, Chef.

[Capital One Representative]

This is so nice.

Had a feeling you'd want 3% cash back on dessert.

Oh, tiramisu.

Earn unlimited 3% cash back on dining and entertainment with the Capital One Saver Card. Capital One what's in your wallet?

[Chef]

Terms apply.

[Capital One Representative]

See capitalone.com for details.

[Vanta Representative]

Trust isn't just earned, it's demanded. Whether you're a startup founder navigating your first audit, or a seasoned security professional scaling your GRC program, proving your commitment to security has never been more critical or more complex. That's where Vanta comes in. Businesses use Vanta to establish trust by automating compliance needs across over 35 frameworks like SoC2 and ISO 27001, centralized security workflows, complete questionnaires up to five times faster, and proactively manage vendor risk. Vanta not only saves you time, it can also save you Money. A new IDC white paper found that Vanta customers achieve $535,000 per year in benefits, and the platform pays for itself in just three months. Join over 9,000 global companies like Atlassian, Quora, and Factory, who use Vanta to manage risk and prove security in real time. For a limited time, get $1,000 off [e-mail] TedAudio that's V A N-T A.com TedAudio for $1,000 off.

[SimpliSafe Representative]

This episode is sponsored by SimpliSafe. If you're thinking about upgrading your home security, I cannot recommend Simplisaf. I've been using it and their new active guard outdoor protection is seriously next level. AI powered cameras. Plus real live agents keeping an eye on things outside before anything bad happens. It's not just reacting after the fact. If someone's lurking, Simplisafe steps in. Agents can talk to them, flip on spotlights, even call the police. It's like having an extra set of eyes watching over your home. For me, it's become a nightly ritual. Setting the system before bed and knowing everything's protected. Total peace of mind. You can get 50% off your new Simplisafe system with professional monitoring and your first month free. @simplisafe.com Ted Talks Daily. That's simplisafe.com TedTalksDaily there's no safe like Simplisafe.

[Chef]

In places like Indonesia, the biggest source of carbon emissions are actually coming from the loss of our forest and the burning of the peatland. That is this really carbon rich ecosystem that is made up of dead organic matters accumulated over thousands of years. Globally, the agriculture, the forest and the land use sectors actually contributes to around a fifth of the global emission, which is significant. Right. So there's no viable pathway for us to really mitigate climate change without really stopping the loss of our forest and without actually start protecting this massive natural carbon sink that is our peatland, our mangroves. But what's causing the loss of this critical ecosystem? Well, it's actually the productions of commodities that we use every day, things like timber or palm oil that is so ubiquitous that there's a good chance when you walk to your local supermarket stores, almost all products in the shelves have something to do with palm oil one way or another. But it also tells you that this product, this commodity, is so prevalent, it's so embedded in our daily life, in our daily economy, that completely taking out the production and the consumption of it might not be realistic at all. And so companies have recognized this dilemma and they've introduced policies such as the no deforestation policy. And what it does is that it dictates them to really make sure that the palm oil that they're buying is not contributing to forest loss, which is a good start. But that's only one side of the coin. The other side of the coin is that if you really want to have a nature positive outcome out of this, is that you have to start proactively protecting the existing forest and restoring that Restoring those who we have lost. Here's the bad news. Forest conservation financing is massively underfunded. The mitigation actions under the agriculture, forest and land use is severely underfunded that it only receives around less than 4% of the total global climate financing. And this is the problem that we're trying to solve with a mechanism called the Rimba Collective. So I have a political science background as well as forest science background. And I've spent majority of my career working with the governments, companies in Southeast Asia and civil society to reduce the impact of commodity supply chain. And what Rimba Collective mechanism allows us to do is it lets the company to contribute funds to protect and restore the natural ecosystem proportionate to their raw material impact. And in this case, the more they use palm oil, the more they have to contribute to this Rimba Collective fund. And it allows us to have this scalable large scale, long term financing. But it also introduces this sense of shared responsibility and proportionate responsibility across the supply chain. And our aim is to be able to deliver the conservations of around half a million hectares of forests in Southeast Asia over the next 25 years, while also providing local livelihood for the communities that depends on it and preserving the habitats of critically endangered species in the forest area. And Rimba Collective is not just a concept. So we've been doing this for three years now and we're now actively financing around 220,000 hectares of forest in Southeast Asia. But it is not without its challenge. Finding a good infestable forest conservation project is challenging. The first thing that you need to do is to identify forests that have already have land management rights, at least over the next 20 years. Because we want to ensure that any kind of interventions, any kind of investments that we made to protect the forests can sustain over the long term. Second challenge is that some of these forests are located in a really remote location. I happened to visit one of our projects that is considered as accessible in the western coast of Sumatra. And it took me a two hour flight to get to the province from the capital of Jakarta. And then another 12 hours car ride just to arrive to the village. And then another full day's hike just to reach the border of the projects. Other projects might require us to get on a boat, a full day's boat ride just to arrive to the village. Imagine finding good local organizations or local company who can deliver robust conservation, who knows the landscape, but also able to navigate a complex international certification system. Not many organizations can do that. So we have to build an ecosystem of capable organizations that can deliver these conservations. Second challenge is on the demand side. So when we're talking to companies to invest in funds like Rimba Collective, some of them are still thinking that maybe protections and the restorations of nature is not our responsibility. Or maybe they think that conservation is cheap. Putting $5 per hectare on the table is enough to call it conservation. Some of them might think that I'm in it for the next three years and then I'm out. All of those are wildly, wildly unrealistic. Some of these projects, they have to buy motorbikes, they have to buy cars to patrol the area. Some even have to build watchtowers in the middle of nowhere, multiple watchtowers. And some of our projects, they need to build dams to start regulating the water table when they're restoring the peatland ecosystem. And of course, all of that requires significant amount of investment. And so what's the ideal way forward for us? Well, first thing is that we need to change the perception that the protections and the restorations of our natural ecosystem should just be a charity project. It shouldn't be the products that you use every day. Maybe the shampoo that you used this morning might not reflect the true environmental cost behind them. The forest that were lost to grow, the ingredients that goes in it, or the carbon that was lost and will not be absorbed in the future because the trees are no longer there. And so by linking these metrics of procurement of raw commodities directly to the conservation financing, we should be able to recapture that externality cost and redirect that to the conservations or natural ecosystem. And our goal is big. Conserving and restoring 500,000 hectares of forest is ambitious, but that's just a fraction of what we need to do right now. Just to put things into perspective, the World Resources Institute, they estimated that the amount of forest loss that can be linked to palm oil productions globally is already at around 6 million hectares of forest loss. Cattle industry, that's at a staggering 45 million hectares. So again, 500,000 hectares sounds a lot, and it is a lot. It is ambitious given the amount of resources that we need to mobilize. But it should be seen as a starting point of what is possible if actors across the supply chain, working collectively and agree to finance the conservations and the restorations of our natural ecosystem proportionate to their footprint. The climate regulating function of a forest is called an ecosystem. Services, and I'm sure other services that you have in your life, you must be paying for that, right? So our money, your money should not just be paying for the raw ingredients that we use every day. Our money should be able to pay for the preservations of the natural ecosystem that we all depend on. And what we want to do is to replicate this across other supply chains. So maybe we have fashion collective or rubber collective, and maybe only then we might have a chance to close that financing gap and have a real fighting chance to address the climate crisis. Thank you.

[Elise Hu]

That was Andika Putra da tama at TED Countdown's Dilemma event in Brussels in 2024. If you're curious about TED's curation, find out more at ted.com curationguidelines and that's it for today's show. TED Talks Daily is part of the TED Audio Collective. This episode was produced and edited by our team, Martha Estefanos, Oliver Friedman, Brian Green, Lucy Little, Alejandra Salazar and Tonsika Sarmarnivon. It was mixed by Christopher Faizy Bogan. Additional support from Emma Tobner and Daniela Ballarezzo. I'm Elise Hu. I'll be back tomorrow with a fresh idea for your feed. Thanks for listening.

[Capital One Representative]

If you love to travel, Capital One has a rewards credit card that's perfect for you. With the Capital One Venture X card, you earn unlimited double miles on everything you buy. Plus you get premium benefits at a collection of luxury hotels when you book on Capital One Travel. And with Venture X, you get access to over 1,000 airport lounges worldwide. Open up a world of travel possibilities with a Capital One Venture X card. What's in your wallet?

[Chef]

Terms Apply Lounge access is subject to change.

[Capital One Representative]

See capitalone.com for details. Here's a wake up call. Right now your liver is filtering everything from fast food to fancy drinks. But there's a game changer that 3.5 million people are talking about. It's called LiverMD. 80% of LiverMD users saw significant improvements in their liver test results, plus better energy digestion and less bloating. Backed by clinical research and trusted by health professionals, physician formulated LiverMD takes liver care to the next level with seven clinically studied ingredients at their clinically effective dosages. For real powerful results. From happy hours to heavy meals and everyday environmental toxins, your liver's keeping score. Time to flip the script with liver. Feel the difference in 90 days or it's free. Visit 1md.org and use code TED Talks to save 15% on your first order.

[Jonathan Fields]

This is Jonathan Fields from Good Life Project and I'm here to tell you about Blue Lizard. So I live at altitude in the mountains where the sun is really intense and when I head outdoors I trust Blue Lizard's Mineral Sunscreens with their Smart Cap technology that turns blue under UV rays. And I love Blue Lizard's Mineral Sunscreen sticks, perfect for sensitive skin. Be fearless in the sun. Go to blue lizardsunscreen.com to find out more information, which sunscreens are right for your family and where you can buy in store or visit Blue Lizard Australian Sunscreen Store on Amazon.