When Dutch botanists planted the first oil palm cutting from Africa at a Javan botanical garden in 1848, they could hardly have imagined the global industry they were seeding. Nearly two centuries later, Indonesia and Malaysia dominate world palm oil production, supplying an ingredient found in half the products on supermarket shelves — from chocolate bars to shampoo to biofuel. But this success has come at a devastating environmental cost, and as Africa looks to develop its own palm oil industry, the question is urgent: can the continent avoid the mistakes that flattened Southeast Asia’s rainforests?
Africa currently imports roughly half the palm oil it consumes. Nigeria banned imports in 2001 — then quickly reversed the policy. Ghana, Cameroon, and the Democratic Republic of Congo are all pursuing expansion strategies. With global demand for palm oil projected to triple by 2050, Africa is being eyed by multinational corporations as the next great frontier for industrial plantations.
The Asian Warning
Indonesia lost 11 percent of its total forest area between 2001 and 2019, with roughly one-third of that loss driven by oil palm expansion. Satellite imagery has documented the systematic conversion of ancient rainforest into monoculture plantations, draining carbon-rich peatlands and wiping out habitat for endangered species including orangutans, pygmy elephants, and Sumatran rhinos.
“Palm oil expansion poses a significant threat to rainforest habitats in Cameroon and the wider Congo Basin,” warns Imogen Fanning, a sustainable business project analyst at the Zoological Society of London. The Congo Basin holds one of the three last great rainforest blocks on Earth and is home to more than 75 million people who depend on it for their livelihoods.
Smallholders at the Heart of African Production
Unlike Southeast Asia, where large corporations dominate plantation ownership, around 70 percent of African palm oil is produced by smallholders — farmers working plots of less than five hectares, often using older, less productive trees. Yields on these smallholder farms typically reach around six tonnes per hectare, compared to more than twenty tonnes on a well-managed commercial plantation.
This productivity gap represents both a challenge and an opportunity. Elikplim Agbitor, head of Africa at the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), says that boosting yields on existing cultivated land — rather than expanding into forests — is the most sustainable path forward.
In Ghana, a social enterprise programme run by Golden Star Oil Palm Plantations has shown what’s possible. The group achieved RSPO certification for independent smallholder farmers and saw yields rise from 15 tonnes per hectare to 21 tonnes per hectare over two years. Farmers also began receiving premium prices for certified sustainable products, improving household incomes without expanding acreage.
The Cost of Doing It Right
The Ghana example is unusual. The farmers received sustained financial and technical support from a mining company that became their parent organization. For ordinary smallholders, the costs of RSPO certification and the ongoing audits required are prohibitive without external subsidy.
The RSPO operates a Smallholder Support Fund to help bridge this gap, but the scale of need across the continent far exceeds current resources. Around 10,000 African smallholders currently produce RSPO-certified palm oil, but almost all certified oil produced in Africa comes from large industrial producers — not the small farmers who form the backbone of the continent’s sector.
What Africa Must Learn
The path forward requires several things happening simultaneously. Governments must create land-use frameworks that designate forested areas as off-limits to commercial plantation development. International buyers must be willing to pay premium prices that allow smallholders to invest in better practices. And development finance institutions must channel capital toward yield improvement on existing farms rather than funding the opening of new frontiers in the Congo Basin.
Africa has a narrow window to develop its palm oil industry sustainably. The continent has land, labor, and a growing market. What it does not have is an infinite supply of rainforest to sacrifice — or the luxury of time before global environmental accountability catches up with even its most remote plantation frontiers.