Oil palm plantations can supplant once biodiverse tropical forests. As planted areas expand, it is vital to plan landscapes to better balance biodiversity and oil palm production. Strategic ‘set-asides’ offer a key approach.
In recent decades, oil palm has expanded spectacularly in some of the most biodiverse areas of the tropics, especially in Indonesia and Malaysia. This expansion has caused extensive deforestation (including loss of more than 2.1 million ha of primary forests in Borneo2, as well as other forests and agroforests), and management of plantations often relies heavily on clearing, herbicides and pesticides. This has generated many direct and indirect impacts on wildlife, ecosystems, climate and human communities3. Further expansion is ongoing, and global demand continues to rise4.
Source: Ecology - nature.com
