Oreos Versus Orangutans: The Need for Sustainability Transformations and Nonhierarchical Polycentric Governance in the Global Palm Oil Industry
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Dear authors! It was a pleasure for me to read and review your research. Undoubtedly, the question of palm oil supply chains are of a high relevance for both modern industries and environment protection. Still, the article would benefit from minor improvements.
- Figures 3, 4, 5. Would be nice to show the authorship of the figures after the figure title, not after the caption.
- The article overall would benefit from a slight restructuring, creating a separate part with more detailed description of your methodology.
Notwithstanding the above mentioned comments, the article leaves a good impression and is easy to read.
Author Response
Reviewer response is located in the word document. - GBS
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
In the first part of writing, the use of palm oil in the food and beauty industry is briefly described. Unsustainable and unregulated palm oil production is set as the main topic. Scientists and governments have failed to inform consumers of palm oil production external costs. The goals of the review are proposed in the end of this part as 1. to describe negative environmental impact and 2. to offer a framework for palm oil production regulation to make it sustainable, through a.) polycentric governance and b.) global coordination as the main tools.
The main information of this part is:
- the palm oil industry negates tropical conservation efforts,
- social costs in palm oil nations as Indonesia, Malaysia, Ecuador, etc. (forced labour, child labour, etc.),
- environmental hazards of palm oil production is deforestation, biodiversity loss, increased wildfire activity, land cover change, non-forest land capture,
- monocrop plantations are owned and operated by transnational corporations,
- political and corporate background of the farmers determines the level of land conversion,
- land cover conversion amplifies habitat fragmentation,
- plantations deplete soil.
The second part of this section focus on negative impact of palm oil consumption on human health, as well as smoke-induces respiratory illness caused by slash and burn land clearing.
The main message of this section is to image the real costs that environment must pay (especially in palm oil production tropical countries as Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Ecuador, etc.) for American (and other western) countries reliance on the palm oil industry.
The authors assume the idea of unilateral regulation of palm oil production to be insufficient. On contrary to global sustainability and transparency trends in global supply chains supported by transnational corporations´ capacities, TNCs in palm oil sector face barriers in meeting global transparency objectives. Five TNCs account for 90 % of globally traded palm oil product. Sustainable trade goals require a new, socio-political eco-transformational solution.
A polycentric governance system as a right solution is defined in the second part of this section as an achievement in collective action decision-making and component-level redundancy by improving connectivity, learning and interconnectedness across a range of actors and scales, within a given policy arena. In this system multiple governing bodies interact. In the palm oil industry, the third-party certification program called the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil´s (RSPO) has been set and has brought evident results, but this system is still imperfect.
According to the authors, non-hierarchical polycentric governance, by improving institutional arrangements and including governmental and non-governmental units, might be the right alternative to common-pool resource sustainability and climate governance without central coordination resources.
The main message of this section is that polycentric governance model should be supplemented by some more micro-transformational links. The setting is capable to create managerial overlap across actors, scales, and mechanisms in palm oil supply chains. In this line, the authors added several micro-transformational nodes to existing governance system. This model ensures inclusivity, transparency, and legitimacy across all actors in supply chain as well as it boosts current governance capacity by co-evolving relations between multi-scale actors, global consumers, and key decision-makers. Given that non-conventional actors occupy political-leadership positions, such as transnational companies or financiers, the critical component in improving collective governance is important.
For purpose to reach sustainability over international food trade, authors recommend a new paradigm of environmental data transparency. Governments provide open-source data at the product level. Macro-level transformations require optimization and unification of micro-level ones. Micro-level transformations are small-scale adjustments to unconventional standards, such as a strong governmental focus on open-source data transparency. For global trade sustainability, trade laws should 1. integrate more transparent system of environmental resources management, 2. offer environmental NGOs to engage in the decision-making process and 3. facilitate open-source system of sustainability data on cross-border trade.
The European Union ban on palm oil imports in biofuels is an example of reducing the demand for unsustainable goods, but doesn´t have a transformative reach on global supply chain. The onus of sustainable governance should focus on improving long-term societal development, while transformational governance requires that a government creates the suitable conditions for transformative changes. In addition to the state, individual consumers also play a role by refusing to buy palm oil products. Micro-transformational policies have potential to increase consumer awareness if it is combined with data on health studies and negative externalities of palm oil consumption and production. The next step is to mandate all importers of oil to adhere to labour and environmental justice regulations through certification labelling. Developed nations should incorporate open-source trade data.
The main message of this section is that authors highlight transparency in trading systems before unilateral action to achieve sustainable development goals.
The industrialization of tropical nature occurs illegally, developed countries of north encourage commodification of common-pool resources in emergent nations. A new global food trade system should encourage sustainable transformations, act as a system of decision-making nodes and polycentrically innovate solutions. It then may delineate the role of the state, market, and stakeholders in a sustainable system.
Positive features: The writing propose the introduction to very interesting and current topic of palm oil production in the tropic forest countries. Led by five TNCs while not paying enough attention to negative externalities on environment (deforestation, wildfire activity) and social conditions of workers (child labour, low wages), lack of awareness on the side of consumers as well as lack of coordination at the international level. The need of regulation is evident, and the tools should make a part of a deeper scientific and political debate nowadays.
The last section proposing environmental data transparency is clear and well described. It brings interesting ideas about micro-level transformations through governments´ data accessing and consumers´ awareness raising.
Comments: 1. Some of data concerning the palm oil production impact seem to be simplified or exaggerated. Data used in the externalities of palm oil production section are not sufficiently substantiated (lines 112-121), only “aerial estimates” are used. I assume the claim that “…for every box of Oreos that Americans eat, an acre of forest is lost to palm oil cultivation and production” (lines 141 and 142) to be exaggerated. According to Mondelez international Oreo fact sheet (available online: https://eu.mondelezinternational.com/) approximately one billion Oreo packages were sold per year 2017, what makes 2,8 million packages a day. That would lead to one billion acres of lost land a year. If we turn it to Americans only, Refinery 29 estimates 245 million Americans bought packaged Oreos in 2018 (available online: https://refinery29.com/en-us/2019/07/238635/which-cookie-brand-sells-most). For illustration, phys.org estimates 14 million acres of palm oil plantation forest lost between 1990 and 2008 (online: https://phys.org/news/2017-06-palm-oil-responsible-global-deforestation.html). Consequently, I presume the data to be simplified. However, the method of calculation is described on lines 152 to 163 and may be submitted to further scientific examination. I would propose to use other scientific papers.
2. The polycentric governance model is vaguely described, it calls for deeper description, examples, and specific modes of cooperation. Collective governance supplemented by focus on consumer´s awareness might be a good choice, but still, regulation at international level can bring significant results. It lacks description/proposals of collective governance in this field in practice.
Author Response
Reviewer response is located in the word document. - GBS
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
