A systematic map of within-plantation oil palm management practices reveals a rapidly growing but patchy evidence base

Abstract

Although oil palm expansion has had severe environmental impacts, oil palm also has the highest yield per hectare of any vegetable oil crop. Compared to many other crops, it has the potential to support high complexity habitats, with minimal chemical input, and relatively high levels of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. However, there has been little synthesis of available research on oil palm management strategies to support delivery of more sustainable cultivation. In this paper, we provide a systematic map compiling all available evidence assessing within-plantation oil palm management practices at the cultivation stage, with a focus on practices that affect biodiversity and environmental processes. Using approaches adapted from systematic review protocols, we catalogued oil palm management publications to provide details of geographic location, year, interventions tested (i.e. agricultural practices), targeted outcomes of interventions, co-occurrences between different interventions and outcomes (including multiple outcomes), and study design. Most studies were conducted in Southeast Asia, with fewer studies conducted in South America or Africa. Twenty-six interventions were observed in the literature, across six categories: soil, understory, within-crop, landscape-level, replanting, and mixed/multiple interventions. The most common interventions tested were landscape-scale interventions, such as maintaining forest fragments/buffer zones, whereas interventions involved in replanting were the least researched. Eight outcomes were considered: soil fertility, soil erosion, water quality and availability, pest control, replanting, maintenance of biodiversity and areas of high conservation value, and reducing air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Studies researching biodiversity were the most common, whereas comparatively few studies considered replanting and reducing emissions. Most primary studies were observational, with experimental studies being rarer, especially in biodiversity research. We match our findings to the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil’s environmental sustainability criteria to illustrate how policy-makers and producers may use our map to access evidence supporting cultivation-stage oil palm sustainability management. This study provides valuable information to inform best management practices and direction for necessary future research.

Congo: The Next Frontier for the Palm Oil Industry

“…Popkin et al [84] have shown that increasingly, oil palm plantation and mill managers are adopting management practices that reduce the negative impact of the industry on biodiversity and environmental processes. Such practices include planting highyielding varieties, optimizing the application of organic and mineral fertilizers and maintaining a very high harvest quality index in fresh fruit bunches sent to the palm oil mill.…”

Mechanical weeding enhances ecosystem multifunctionality and profit in industrial oil palm

“…management strategies on ecosystem functions, biodiversity and economic productivity. Primary, experimental research studies that assess the effect of management on multiple outcomes, although presently rare, are pertinent to providing clearer oil palm management recommendations 14 because oil palm plantations are inherently complex agricultural systems. Application of fertilizer and herbicide at high frequencies are arguably the most important management activities in industrial oil palm plantations due to their effect on oil palm yield.…”