By: Andreea Barbu, SFU Student
On October 23, Akamine Jun, a professor at the Graduate School of Social Sciences, Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo, presented findings from his research at a lecture in the SFU David Lam Centre. His research interests focus on maritime Asian studies and ethnography of food. Professor Jun’s presentation aimed to show how the end of whaling for whale oil in the 1960s indirectly resulted in the death of orangutans.
Jun began by recalling a visit he took to the Singapore Zoo many years ago, which had over 40 orangutans at that time. Singapore is located between Indonesia and Malaysia, countries in which palm oil plantations are rapidly expanding. The large expansion of palm oil plantations caused Jun to be interested in the history of edible oil, and to examine the shift from heavy whale oil consumption to the current use of palm oil.
In the early to mid-20th century, Japan was heavily involved in the commercial whaling of both coastal and Antarctic whales. These factory ships would then go to London or Amsterdam to sell the oil. According to Jun, “World production of edible fats and oils around 1930s is estimated at approximately 21 million tons.” Jun explained whale oil was important in the European market. In the 1930s, countries such as the UK and Germany especially needed whale oil for the production of margarine. During this time there were no restrictions as to how many whales could be hunted. Antarctic whaling for producing oil prospered before World War II. Around 1946-1949, Japan suffered from a severe food shortage, and it was this shortage that contributed to a shift from whaling for oil, to whaling for meat. Notably, this was still done with few restrictions.
However, the establishment of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in 1946 changed this. One of its first steps included the adoption of the Blue Whale Unit (BWU), a management tool that was based on the amount of oil that could be produced by one blue whale. The IWC agreed on a maximum of 16,000 BWU for the whaling season. Quotas for each whale species were introduced in 1972, where most whale species were banned with few exceptions.
Jun presented a graph from 2016, showing that palm oil was the most consumed oil at this time, standing at 35%. He compared this to a 1955 graph, where whale oil accounted for 2.7% of consumption. This figure presents a profound transformation when viewed in the context of today’s oil consumption, where the inclusion of whale oil is non-existent in these graphs.
Jun attributes the stark contrast to expanding palm oil plantations in West Africa and Southeast Asia. Because palm oil needs to be collected all at once to be considered profitable, Jun pointed out that a plantation that is “20,000 hectares is very common and it is just one company’s plot. Normally similar plantations lay side by side.” This exploitation of the land inevitably results in the loss of habitats for the orangutans, rendering them a critically endangered species.
Steps to protect species have been taken, such as Sabah, a Malaysian state, proposing that 30% of the state’s biodiverse forests would be protected by the state government. However, Jun notes that the right side of the bank can continue to be developed. While development occurs and displaces wildlife, Sabah has committed to providing a safe alternative to house these animals. Namely, the world-renowned orangutan conservation facility, the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre, dedicated to protecting orangutans.
The two main orangutan species, Bornean and Sumatran, are both in sharp decline. According to the World Wildlife Foundation, “A century ago there were probably more than 230,000 orangutans in total, but the Bornean orangutan is now estimated at about 104,700” and the Sumatran population has become critically endangered at 7,500.
Jun said, “It was vegetable oil that replaced whale oil in the 1960s, even though the amount of whale oil at that time was already small, but still 2.7% in the 50s. As long as one needs edible oils such as margarine or bar soap, exploitation of the earth is inevitable.” Palm oil is used most commonly for food, soaps, and cosmetics.
To conclude, Jun asked, “How can we increase food production [ . . . ] while we conserve biodiversity? [ . . . ] It is not a simple question we could easily judge with a good or bad. Many issues lie in the gray zone between black and white.”
