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he situation analysis primarily focuses on oil palm in the context of biodiversity conservation based on literature published before 31 January 2018, and aims to provide a constructive pathway to addressing sustainability challenges in the palm oil industry. This report does not assess the social and economic implications of palm oil production and...
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... (Figure 2). It has become a popular commodity because of its high yield -surpassing the yields of other vegetable oils such as soy, canola, olive, sunflower and rapeseed several times over - Oil palm refers to the trees that produce fruits from which oil is harvested. ...
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... oil -flipping it -refers to the oil that is produced from the fruit harvested in these plantations. Palm oil is the oil used in soap, noodles, a plethora of other foods and consumer goods, and diesel ( Figure 2). We therefore use palm oil in reference to the product and oil palm in reference to the trees. ...
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... oil is high in palmitic fatty acid and almost 75% of world production goes into food products, particularly cooking oil and processed oils and fats (e.g., margarine). Palm kernel oil is high in lauric fatty acids and is used mostly for soap and industrial purposes, as well as processed foods (9) ( Figure 2). There are commercially available alternatives to palm oil but they tend to be economically infeasible for the scale at which palm oil is being used for food and industrial purposes (17). ...
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... oil palm plantations advance across the island and natural forest habitat is lost, forest species such as orangutans are suffering. The Southeast Asian Water Monitor (Varanus salvator macromaculatus) (Figure 22), however, is appearing to thrive in the plantations in the North-East Although oil palm plantations are biodiversity-poor, 36 occur on Borneo, Sulawesi and in Papua, but is often introduced into plantations there to control rodent pests (229, 235). ...
Citations
... Smallholder farmers often supply fresh fruit bunches unevenly, which limits their access to industrial mills, with much of their produce processed in artisanal mills (Meijaard, Garcia-Ulloa, et al. 2018, Tening, et al. 2023). These farmers are frequently excluded from sectoral development plans, lacking access to critical resources such as knowledge, capital (e.g., fertilisers, quality seeds), markets, and certification. ...
... Between 2002 and 2008, the oil palm area in the Orinoquia grew primarily at the expense of pastures (58%) and savannas (11%)(Castiblanco, Etter en Aide 2013). While the impacts of oil palm expansion in forests are relatively well studied, its effects on other natural ecosystems-such as tropical savannas, shrublands, and grasslands (areas previously cleared for cattle ranching)-remain less understood(Meijaard, Garcia-Ulloa, et al. 2018).In 2020, the Colombian Barometer of Sustainable Palm Oil was released, highlighting "Pioneering initiativessuch as the Zero Deforestation Agreement, signed in 2017 under the flag of the Tropical Forest Alliance (TFA), and the National Sustainable Palm Oil Program (APSCO), led by sector organization Fedepalma since 2019, now pave the way for the completion of the sustainable sector transformation in this decade" by Solidaridad (2020). Such efforts have contributed to positioning palm oil from Colombia as an environmentally friendly option, with relatively low impacts on deforestation. ...
Should investors and others concerned with supporting Sustainable Development Goals engage with oil palm cultivation, and if so, how? Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSS) have played a pivotal role in improving social and environmental sustainability in the sector. However, risks and opportunities vary across regions, making their implementation challenging. Despite their importance in the oil palm sector, integrating and developing smallholder farmers within the supply chain remains difficult. Financial and other constraints make certification unattainable for most smallholders, requiring more scalable and flexible solutions guided by the principles underlying VSS. Investors must be aware of local realities and limitations, invest in safeguards, build local capacities, and enhance information flows and dialogue among sector stakeholders.
... In Latin America, pastureland has also significantly replaced tropical forests, making it one of the most prominent changes in land cover (Graesser et al., 2015;Wassenaar et al., 2007). Pasture and palm cultivation homogenizes habitats, driving the loss of biodiversity (Meijaard et al., 2018;Reiners et al., 1994) with negative impacts documented for insects (Fitzherbert et al., 2008;Kruess & Tscharntke, 2002). ...
Oil palm cultivation and the conversion of tropical forests to pastures are impacting freshwater tropical systems. This study examines periphyton biomass, richness, diversity, and community composition in streams affected by forests, pastures, and oil palm plantations, with and without forest buffer strips. Streams shaded by forests or riparian buffers exhibited more canopy cover, lower water temperatures, and reduced light, while those in pastures and unbuffered plantations had higher periphyton biomass, indicated by elevated chlorophyll-a levels. Periphyton richness and diversity were higher in pasture streams compared to forested ones and streams through oil palm areas. Common periphyton taxa differed among stream depending of land cover. Streams in buffered and unbuffered palm plantations featured taxa such as Navicula and Gyrosigma, whereas pasture streams commonly included were characterized by genera such as Cymbella, and Gonatozygon, and forest stream communities featured Phormidium and Eunotia. Pasture streams displayed altered taxa richness and diversity compared to the other land uses. There were no significant differences in periphyton communities between the two oil palm cultivation types, indicating that conservation buffers may not effectively protect periphyton communities in these settings. This research highlights the need for further studies on the impacts of agricultural practices on aquatic primary producers.
... The global demand for vegetable oil has more than doubled in the last two decades following increased demand in the food, cosmetics, and energy sectors (FAO, 2020). While Indonesia and Malaysia contribute most to the global production of and trade in palm oil, other countries, especially in Africa have shown signs of increased oil palm cultivation (Meijaard et al., 2018;Wich et al., 2014). This increased production has a huge impact on the natural forest, biodiversity, conservation, and our ability to mitigate climate change (Alcock et al., 2022). 1 Agricultural expansion in general and oil palm expansion specifically has implications for Goals 15, 12, and 13, of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which focuses, respectively, on safeguarding life on land, responsible production and consumption, and climate action, respectively (Meijaard et al., 2018). ...
... While Indonesia and Malaysia contribute most to the global production of and trade in palm oil, other countries, especially in Africa have shown signs of increased oil palm cultivation (Meijaard et al., 2018;Wich et al., 2014). This increased production has a huge impact on the natural forest, biodiversity, conservation, and our ability to mitigate climate change (Alcock et al., 2022). 1 Agricultural expansion in general and oil palm expansion specifically has implications for Goals 15, 12, and 13, of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which focuses, respectively, on safeguarding life on land, responsible production and consumption, and climate action, respectively (Meijaard et al., 2018). Recent data from FAOSTAT puts the global total harvested area of oil palm fruit at 289 000 km 2 (FAO, 2022), and a total production figure of 416.4 Million tons (Mt) as at 2021. ...
... Oil palm starts yielding 3 years after planting, then yields increase before plateauing between 7 and 15 years, after which yield declines slowly until the palm needs replacing at around 25-30 years of age (Corley & Tinker, 2008;Danylo et al., 2021). Another special characteristics of oil palm that makes it desirable over other vegetable oil is its ability to grow well and profitably in hemic and sapric peat lands, sands and acid sulfate soils, which are less suitable for other vegetable oil crops (Corley & Tinker, 2016;Meijaard et al., 2018;Naidu, 2006;Veloo et al., 2015). This makes oil palm fruit cultivation a major driver of deforestation, flooding, (Austin et al., 2019;Gaveau et al., 2019;Meijaard & Sheil, 2019;Rodr ıguez et al., 2021;Wijedasa et al., 2017), loss of biodiversity (Margono et al., 2014), and poor air quality (Noojipady et al., 2017;Van der Werf et al., 2009). ...
Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) cultivation in Central Africa (CA) has become important because of the increased global demand for vegetable oils. The region is highly suitable for the cultivation of oil palm and this increases pressure on forest biodiversity in the region. Accurate maps are therefore needed to understand trends in oil palm expansion for landscape‐level planning, conservation management of endangered species, such as great apes, biodiversity appraisal and supply of ecosystem services. In this study, we demonstrate the utility of a U‐Net Deep Learning Model and product fusion for mapping the extent of oil palm plantations for six countries within CA, including Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Republic of Congo. Sentinel‐1 and Sentinel‐2 data for the year 2021 were classified using a U‐Net model. Overall classification accuracy for the final oil palm layer was 96.4 ± 1.1%. Producer Accuracy (PA) and User Accuracy (UA) for the industrial and smallholder oil palm classes were 91.6 ± 1.7% and 95.0 ± 1.3%, 67.7 ± 2.8% and 70.0 ± 2.8%. Post classification assessment of the transition from tropical moist forest (TMF) cover to oil palm within the six CA countries suggests that over 1000 Square Kilometer (km²) of forest within great ape ranges had so far been converted to oil palm between 2000 and 2021. Results from this study indicate a more extensive cover of smallholder oil palm than previously reported for the region. Our results also indicate that expansion of other agricultural activities may be an important driver of deforestation as nearly 170 000 km² of forest loss was recorded within the IUCN ranges of the African great apes between 2000 and 2021. Output from this study represents the first oil palm map for the CA, with specific emphasis on the impact of its expansion on great ape ranges. This presents a dependable baseline through which future actions can be formulated in addressing conservation needs for the African Great Apes within the region.
... Even oil palm plantations can help increase the aboveground biomass and carbon stocks in highly degraded lands (Ahirwal et al., 2022). Furthermore, this kind of plantation can develop a rather stable diversity because of their medium to long commercial life cycle (Meijaard et al., 2018), if they are managed with organic practices to increase insect diversity and abundance, which can in turn maintain the populations of insectivorous birds and bats, even when forests are relatively far from the farm . That has been observed in our results, with Darwin wasps' mean abundance and richness in achiote farms being as high as in forests, and even higher than in restoration plots. ...
... It can be concluded that PT LPYE's oil palm plantation based on the interpretation of Landsat imagery, as well as in-depth interviews and literature studies is NOT the main factor causing primary forest deforestation on the land. This is in accordance with the research of [24,25,26,27] which state that land clearing for oil palm plantations on land that has been degraded due to previous human activities is not the main factor causing deforestation, ...
These days, it is widely believed that the development of oil palm plantations in Indonesia is related to the problem of primary forest deforestation. To prove this problem, research was conducted to study the status and land use history of the large state oil palm plantations, as well as the development of changes in oil palm plantation land cover, focusing on PT LPYE in North Sumatra. Data was taken through interviews and literature studies related to the history of palm oil companies at PT LPYE. The development of land cover at PT LPYE were documented using visually interpreted imagery to create land cover status maps in two time periods (1987-1988). The results show that PT LPYE's land cover status origin was the other use area (APL) (97.1%), with the remainder being forest area in the form of limited production forest (HPT) (2.3%) and permanent production forest (HP) (0.6%). Based on the 2014 forest area map, most of PT LPYE's land has the status of other use area (99.9%), while 0.1% has the status of production forest (HP). However, this change has received permission with a Forest Release Decree through the Minister of Forestry Decree No.494/Kpts-II/1999 covering an area of 5,143.75 ha. PT LPYE's land was the community land and has been used since 1955 as a shifting cultivation area for the community, which was then built on an oil palm plantation by PT SSL in 1979. Based on the results of the interpretation of Landsat image data, the land cover of PT LPYE's plantation in 1988 was 4009.01 ha, an increase from 1987, which was 3838.50 ha. Apart from that, PT LPYE also has other land cover in the form of old shrubs and open land. Referring to the Indonesian definition of "deforestation", this oil palm plantation is not the result of deforestation and not a direct cause of primary deforestation"
... Smallholder palm oil plantations (sometimes managed as agroforestry) could also represent a portion of the total number of the patches mapped. In West Africa, almost 70% of palm oil production stems from smallholder farming (parcels <50 ha), which are partly deforestation-free (Meijaard et al. 2018, Descals et al. 2021. Several studies suggest that palm oil smallholdings may harbour more species diversity than large-scale palm oil holdings (but still less than natural forests), and their species diversity may be enhanced by neighbouring forests (Azhar et al. 2015, Meijaard et al. 2018. ...
... In West Africa, almost 70% of palm oil production stems from smallholder farming (parcels <50 ha), which are partly deforestation-free (Meijaard et al. 2018, Descals et al. 2021. Several studies suggest that palm oil smallholdings may harbour more species diversity than large-scale palm oil holdings (but still less than natural forests), and their species diversity may be enhanced by neighbouring forests (Azhar et al. 2015, Meijaard et al. 2018. ...
In West Africa, vast areas are being deforested; the remnant forest patches provide a wealth of ecosystem services and biodiversity conservation potential, yet they are threatened by human activity. Forest patches <100 ha have not been widely catalogued before; we mapped forest loss of small forest patches outside of protected areas in the Guinean savannah and humid Guineo-Congolian bioclimatic regions of Togo, Benin, Nigeria and Cameroon between 2000 and 2022. Focusing on the dynamics of small patches, without considering the splitting process of larger patches, we quantified changes in their number and area and the rate and trend of forest loss. Small forest patches are widespread, yet their area and number have decreased, while the forest loss rate is increasing. Primary forest patches lost almost half of their area annually – twice as much as secondary forests, and this loss was especially pronounced across small patches (0.5 – 10 ha), suggesting deforestation preferentially occurs in the smallest patches of primary forest. If forest loss continues at the current rate, 14% of the total forest area mapped in this study will have disappeared by 2032, jeopardizing their potential to provide ecosystem services and emphasizing the need for measures to counter their deforestation.
... The impacts are derived by linking detailed data on trade across commodities between all pairwise combinations of countries, to the Species Threat Abatement and Restoration metric (Mair et al., 2021;Irwin et al., 2022), which is itself derived from the IUCN Red List (IUCN, 2024). Thus, for example, the import of palm oil into Switzerland from Indonesia contributes towards the extinction risk of the Critically Endangered Sumatran Orangutan (Pongo abelii) (Singleton et al. 2024;Meijaard et al., 2018). The same approach can also be used to derive indicators of the impacts of exported and domestic goods on extinction risk. ...
"This report comprises two parts. Part I, the bulk of the report, assesses the relationships between nature conservation and agriculture in our globalised world, drawing from data, publications, and expertise from IUCN and beyond. Chapter 1 provides definitions and framing of ‘agriculture’, ‘nature’, and associated terms. Chapter 2 uses both synthesis of the evidence and empirical analysis to explore how agriculture affects nature. Chapter 3, conversely, explores the impacts that nature, mediated by ecosystem services and disservices, has on agriculture. Drawing from these, Chapter 4 harnesses integrated assessment modelling to examine the prospects for simultaneous achievement of global goals for both agriculture and conservation. Chapter 5 then examines a range of realistic policy scenarios currently under discussion in the agriculture and conservation sectors and beyond. Chapter 6 concludes with key messages emerging from the report. Finally, Part II documents four key indicators of nature and conservation, drawing in part from data based on IUCN standards for countries across the world."
... Here, oil palm is grown using industrial (i.e., large-scale cultivation managed by corporations), smallholder (small-to medium-scale cultivation managed by individual farmers), and traditional management approaches (harvesting from wild-growing oil palms that grow naturally in low-lying areas of rainforest). West African oil palm production is expanding rapidly in many areas, owing to a perceived ample land availability, suitable climate for oil palm growth (although this is disputed owing to lower levels of solar radiation in comparison to Southeast Asia (Woittiez et al., 2017)), cheap labour costs, and rapid urbanization that has increased demand for market-purchasable palm oil rather than harvesting of wild-growing palm fruits (Meijaard et al., 2018;Ordway et al., 2017). In comparison to Southeast Asia, very little is known about how oil palm cultivation in West Africa affects nature and society, or whether this differs between industrial, smallholder, or traditionally-managed farms (Pashkevich et al., 2024;Reiss-Woolever et al., 2022). ...
Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) is a tropical crop that produce palm oil: the most traded vegetable oil worldwide. It is principally grown in Southeast Asia, but West Africa – oil palm’s native range – is rapidly becoming a hotspot of cultivation. Oil palm in West Africa is cultivated using both traditional (i.e., by local people) and industrial (i.e.,by corporations) approaches. Little is known about the relative ecological impacts of these different oil palm cultivation styles on native rainforest ecosystems. Working in Liberia within the framework of the Sustainable Oil Palm in West Africa (SOPWA) Project, we investigated the impacts of traditional and industrial approaches to oilpalm cultivation on spiders—important meso-predators that provide pest control services—inhabiting under-story vegetation. We sampled spiders in three systems: (1) rainforest, (2) fallowed farmland with wild-growing oil palms, which local people manage and harvest (‘country palm’), and (3) industrial oil palm farms. We assessed differences in the abundance of all spiders, adults only, and juveniles only; spider species richness, and spider species-level community composition. Through focussed samples of orb web-building spiders, we also assessed differences in spider web-building (the average web area, total web area, standard deviation of web area) and prey capture (the average captured prey, total captured prey, standard deviation of captured prey)across systems. We found that rainforest had more species in total and on average than country palm and industrial oil palm, and that country palm had fewer spider individuals than rainforest and industrial oil palm. All systems supported distinct spider communities. Our focussed studies on orb web-building spiders indicated that the average web area, total web area, and standard deviation of web area were all higher in industrial oil palm than forest and country palm, which led to higher average and total prey capture. Our findings indicate that conversion of rainforest to country palm and industrial oil palm in Liberia has negative effects on spider biodiversity, with clear “winning” and “losing” species, and levels of spider-associated ecosystem functioning.Our findings also show that industrial oil palm farms can support relatively abundant and speciose spider communities, which may provide important pest control services that could boost oil palm productivity. Future work is needed to identify effective management strategies to conserve spiders and associated pest control services in West African country palm and industrial oil palm systems.
... In general, oil palm plantations show lower plant and animal species richness than primary and secondary forests (Meijaard et al., 2018). Also, important changes in the species composition have been detected when the forest is modified to oil palm, with the remaining species usually being generalist species of low conservation concern (Danielsen et al., 2009;Savilaakso et al., 2014). ...
Oil palm plantations are expanding in Mexico, primarily in areas already dominated by induced grasslands and other crops. There is a large body of information on the reduction of biodiversity in oil palm plantations compared to conserved forests. However, only a few studies have been performed in already anthropized matrices where almost all the natural vegetation has been replaced. To determine the effect of oil palm plantations located in an
anthropized landscape on amphibian biodiversity, we obtained amphibian species richness and abundance using 48 transects distributed among seven oil palm plantation estates situated in the Gulf of Mexico lowlands in southeastern Mexico and compared with the observed amphibian biodiversity obtained from 15 previously published amphibian surveys on the area. Our survey in the oil palm plantations resulted in 1,977 individuals belonging to 15 species
from seven anuran families. Although anuran diversity varies among the studied plantation estates, few significant differences were detected. We observed that the species richness in oil palm plantations represents 41.7% of the species detected in the region. However, we observed that more than half of the species (21 of 36) that have been detected in the region appeared in less than 30% of the sites studied, and the 15 remaining species that are more
frequently detected in the area, 12 (80%) are present in oil palm plantations. Our study region has a long history of agricultural use and is already heavily fragmented. Thus, the remarkable similarity observed between the anuran species found in oil palm plantations and the most frequent amphibian species in the Gulf of Mexico lowlands can be explained by an already depauperate landscape dominated by species that are disturbance-tolerant or benefited
from habitat modifications. Oil palm plantations in the region will expand in the future. Our results show that if the expansion continues to replace induced grasslands or other crops will have a reduced impact on the anuran biodiversity in this region. However, this expansion should preserve the remanent secondary growth forest patches distributed along the landscape to maintain the regional anuran diversity
... In the context of sustainability debates, we concentrate on the case of palm oil in 2018 due to two important events that occurred during this year: the release of a report on palm oil's impact on biodiversity by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) 44 , and a widespread social media campaign by Iceland Foods and Greenpeace (see Discussion). Figure 4 presents a detailed breakdown of these dynamics. Panel 4a demonstrates that the IUCN report, despite its scientific significance, did not trigger a substantial public response, with tweets mentioning the IUCN peaking at a modest 2,500 in the week of the report's release before rapidly fading away. ...
The global production and consumption of vegetable oils have sparked wide-ranging and often emotive discussions on sustainable development, especially on social media. Here we analyze over 20 million tweets related to vegetable oils to explore the key factors shaping public opinion. Coconut, olive, and palm oils dominate social media discourse not proportionally to their global production. Olive and palm oil discussions remarkably correlate with Twitter’s (now X) growth, while coconut shows more bursts of activity. Discussions around coconut and olive oils primarily focus on health, beauty, and food, while palm oil draws attention to pressing environmental concerns. Virality is related to environmental issues and negative connotations. In the context of the Sustainable Development Goals, this study highlights the multifaceted nature of the vegetable oil debate and its disconnection from scientific discussions. Our research sheds light on the power of social media in shaping public perception, providing insights into sustainable development strategies.
