( CNN ) -- Palm oil plantations have a pretty bad reputation among eco warriors . Often the rows of oil palms replace primary rainforest , after it 's been mercilessly cleared by logging companies , sometimes illegally . But now the growing pressure from consumers and environmental groups has started to result in changes on the plantations . The owners are not ripping up the multi-million dollar farms , but some are at least making a nod towards a more sustainable way of growing palm oil . The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil ( RSPO ) is a recent initiative to give the industry a better reputation , and brings together representatives from the entire supply chain of palm oil , from the producers and the banks that finance them , to the retailers , and even the consumers . To become certified , plantations must adopt a raft of one hundred greener measurers , including set aside areas along rivers where jungle can regenerate . Some plantation managers are taking it further though , planting endangered trees , enriching these buffer zones with species that are fast disappearing elsewhere in Southeast Asia . The planting will never replace the tens of thousands of hectares of lost jungle , but it is a significant departure from past attitudes . Geoffrey Cooper is one of the last European planters left in the Malaysian palm oil industry . He talks like an evangelical environmentalist , which belies his background as a plantation manager for more than a quarter of a century , in both Asia and Africa . He grew up in Malaysia after his parents arrived from Scotland in the mid 1950s when his father took up a plantation engineer 's job , and is passionate about his work . But what inspires him even more is the chance , as he sees it , to leave a legacy of environmental creation . Cooper manages a 10,000 hectare estate , formerly a sugar plantation , know as `` United International Enterprises '' for United Plantations ( UP ) , about three hours north of the capital , Kuala Lumpur . UP is Danish-controlled and in 2008 was the first plantation company in the world to become certified by the RSPO . Cooper thinks despite the terrible reputation the industry has earned , it is possible to take some small steps to start making palm oil more sustainable . `` We 've got to start somewhere , we can turn the clock back there 's no doubt about it . And we as a group are committed to do that and so are some other big plantation players in the country , '' says Cooper . `` We 'll be looking at getting 300 to 500 diverse tree species and I expect we will plant something like 20,000 trees in our gene bank area , from the current 7,500 already planted since the past two and a half years . '' He 's consulted a local `` tree guru '' James Kingham on most of the plantings . Kingham is also a former planter , but now runs a rare tree nursery comprising 3 million seedlings of rare and endangered trees . `` I am one of the guilty ones , the very guilty ones , where we have felled thousands of acres when I was with a big company in Johor [ to make way for palm oil trees ] , '' says Kingham . `` So I wanted to start something different , something for the future . Back then no one was talking about climate change , it really started as a hobby . '' But now his hobby could be vital to stop some of these trees becoming extinct . Kingham is also being courted by the biggest publicly listed plantation conglomerate in the world , Sime Darby . Kingham says this giant company , with more than half a million hectares of plantations , is buying 200,000 seedlings from him each year . RSPO criteria mean plantations have to have 2 to 4 percent of their acreage set aside ; Sime Darby is stocking some of these areas with rare trees . It may take more than 50 years for the seedlings to reach their maximum height , with some growing to more than 75 meters . Specimens like the Shorea Macrantha are critically-endangered ; there are perhaps just a few hundred left in the wild . Paradoxically , now they are flourishing in an otherwise ecologically barren setting . In terms of processing the palm fruit , measures are being taken towards being a little greener . Each palm tree produces 12 to 14 bunches of bright red fruit per year , each containing 3000 to 5000 fruits each the size of a walnut . Approximately 5 liters of palm oil is derived from 20 kilos of fruit . On Cooper 's estate of 1.4 million palm oil trees a biogas plant was installed in 2008 , which ferments the waste into methane gas that is used to power all the machinery via the mill 's electrical generators . The palm oil industry still has a very long way to go to become green , but Cooper admits consumer pressure is having a positive effect on plantation companies by making them improve their attitude towards conservation and sustainable practices . `` We as planters are very well placed to do something constructive . Let 's face it we need a bit of pressure , we need a bit of direction and we¹re well placed to do something about it now , '' he says .
Plantations in Malaysia are taking steps to make palm oil less destructive . Control of rare tree spieces on plantations is one method . New technology means plantations have to close to 4 hectares of land for native trees . Geoffrey Cooper , plantation manager , says planters are in good position to be constructive .