Oil palm plantations in Peninsular Malaysia: Determinants and constraints on expansion

Shevade, Varada S.; Loboda, Tatiana V.

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0210628

Cited by 74 publications

(53 citation statements)

References 46 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Forested areas have been recklessly replaced with oil palms due to their high economic value. In Malaysia, approximately 650,000 ha of forest was found to have been replaced with oil palm in 2014 [68] and forest cover loss is occurring continuously [69]. Forests in the tropics have high conservation value (HCV) in terms of biological, ecological, social, or cultural values, and warrant protection because they are globally significant [70].…”

Section: Forest Conservation and Sustainabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Synergy of Active and Passive Remote Sensing Data for Effective Mapping of Oil Palm Plantation in Malaysia

Najib

Kanniah

Cracknell

et al. 2020

Forests

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Oil palm is recognized as a golden crop, as it produces the highest oil yield among oil seed crops. Malaysia is the world’s second largest producer of palm oil; 16% of its land is planted with oil palm. To cope with the ever-increasing global demand on edible oil, additional areas of oil palm are forecast to increase globally by 12 to 19 Mha by 2050. Multisensor remote sensing plays an important role in providing relevant, timely, and accurate information that can be developed into a plantation monitoring system to optimize production and sustainability. The aim of this study was to simultaneously exploit the synthetic aperture radar ALOS PALSAR 2, a form of microwave remote sensing, in combination with visible (red) data from Landsat Thematic Mapper to obtain a holistic view of a plantation. A manipulation of the horizontal–horizontal (HH) and horizontal–vertical (HV) polarizations of ALOS PALSAR data detected oil palm trees and water bodies, while the red spectra L-band from Landsat data (optical) could effectively identify built up areas and vertical–horizontal (VH) polarization from Sentinel C-band data detected bare land. These techniques produced an oil palm area classification with overall accuracies of 98.36% and 0.78 kappa coefficient for Peninsular Malaysia. The total oil palm area in Peninsular Malaysia was estimated to be about 3.48% higher than the value reported by the Malaysian Palm Oil Board. The over estimation may be due the MPOB’s statistics that do not include unregistered small holder oil palm plantations. In this study, we were able to discriminate most of the rubber areas.

show abstract

Section: Forest Conservation and Sustainabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Synergy of Active and Passive Remote Sensing Data for Effective Mapping of Oil Palm Plantation in Malaysia

Najib

Kanniah

Cracknell

et al. 2020

Forests

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Industrial oil palm plantations started in the late 1970s but did not expand to peatlands until more recently around 1990s and accelerated throughout the 2000s (Miettinen et al, 2012;Shevade and Loboda, 2019). From the land cover data provided by Miettinen et al (2012Miettinen et al ( , 2016, with average oil palm cropping cycle of 25-30 years (Luskin and Potts, 2011), it is very likely that most of the oil palm plantations currently in peatlands are in their first generation or in the early stages of a second generation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While there have been several recent efforts to restore disturbed peatlands back to peat swamp forest, a vast majority remains as agriculture, primarily on repetitive cycles of oil palm and acacia (Miettinen et al, 2016;Shevade and Loboda, 2019). Considering that there are increasing numbers of oil palm plantation in peatlands getting into their second generation, there is a need to understand the impacts of subsequent generations on peat properties and carbon storage.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is Intercropping an Environmentally-Wise Alternative to Established Oil Palm Monoculture in Tropical Peatlands?

Dhandapani¹,

Girkin²,

Evers³

et al. 2020

Front. For. Glob. Change

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Tropical peatlands in Southeast Asia are important ecosystems that play a crucial role in global biogeochemical cycles, with a potential for strong climate feedback loops. The degradation of tropical peatlands due to the expansion of oil palm plantations and their impact on biodiversity and the carbon balance is a global concern. The majority of conversion of Southeast Asian peatlands to agriculture has been by smallholder oil palm farmers, who follow more varied cropping systems compared to industrial plantations, and have better scope for expansion of other alternative varied cropping systems if supported and encouraged. Using previously-published data on peat physicochemical properties, biodiversity and greenhouse gas emissions from smallholder oil palm plantations, we determined that prolonged oil palm monocropping for two generations would result in loss of carbon and peat functional properties that may lead to potential declassification of peatlands. We propose intercropping during the early stages of oil palm as a wise alternative for already-existing plantations in tropical peatlands to ameliorate some of the negative environmental impacts of oil palm on the physio-chemical properties of peat. However, we emphasize the need to more fully explore the sustainability of intercropping systems throughout the life cycle of palm plantations on peatlands, and integrate with current management practices. We also emphasize the further need for research to fully assess the impacts of oil palm intercropping compared to widelypracticed oil palm monocropping. Finally, we suggest changes in government certification policies to encourage intercropping practices by smallholders.

show abstract

“…Furthermore, the extensive habitat loss especially to industrial oil palm plantations in southern Peninsular Malaysia is unlikely to cease in the near future (see Shevade et al 47 ; Shevade and Loboda 48 ). Hence, based on a small population size and decline, we propose to list P. femoralis as Critically Endangered C2a(i) (<250 mature individuals, continuing population decline, and ≤50 mature individuals in each subpopulation).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Faecal DNA to the rescue: Shotgun sequencing of non-invasive samples reveals two subspecies of Southeast Asian primates to be Critically Endangered species

Ang¹,

Roesma

Nijman

et al. 2019

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

16A significant number of Southeast Asian mammal species described in the 19 th and 20 th 17 century were subsequently synonymized and are now considered subspecies. Many are 18 affected by rapid habitat loss and there is thus an urgent need to re-assess the conservation 19 status based on species boundaries established with molecular data. However, such data are 20 lacking for many populations and subspecies. We document via a literature survey and 21 empirical study how shotgun sequencing of faecal DNA is a still underutilized but powerful 22 tool for accelerating such evaluations. We obtain 11 mitochondrial genomes for three 23 subspecies in the langur genus Presbytis through shotgun sequencing of faecal DNA (P. 24 femoralis femoralis, P. f. percura, P. siamensis cf. cana). The genomes support the 25 resurrection of all three subspecies to species based on multiple species delimitation 26 algorithms (PTP, ABGD, Objective Clustering) applied to a dataset covering 40 species and 27 43 subspecies of Asian colobines. For two of the newly recognized species (P. femoralis, P. 28 percura), the results lead to an immediate change in the IUCN status to Critically Endangered 29 due to small population estimates and fragmented habitat. We conclude that faecal DNA 30 should be more widely used for clarifying species boundaries in endangered mammals. 32 Human impacts on the environment have rapidly accelerated species extinction via habitat 33 degradation and climate change. Recent report by Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform 34 on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) predicts that climate change has already 35 affected the distribution of nearly half (47%) of land-mammals 1 . Conservation efforts are 36 urgently needed but are hampered by the lack of data for a large number of mammal species, 37 subspecies, and populations which face imminent extinction 2,3,4 . A typical example is Asian 38 primates for which 70% of the species are threatened with extinction 5 . Effective conservation 39 programs are needed but they require a robust understanding of species numbers and 40 boundaries based on up-to-date taxonomic information 6,7 . Unfortunately, this information is 41 lacking for many rare, globally threatened, and elusive mammalian species. Many lack 42 molecular data and collecting these data is difficult because invasive sampling that would 43 yield fresh tissues is often not feasible. 44This leaves only three alternative sources of DNA. The first is museum specimens, but the 45 number of samples in museums tends to be small and many were collected in the 19 th or early 46 20 th century thus reflecting (historic) genetic diversity prior to extensive habitat loss. The 47 second is tissue samples obtained from specimens that died of "natural causes" such as road 48 accidents. The third source of genetic material is non-invasive samples such as hair and 49 faeces. Arguably, faecal samples are still an underappreciated source of information although 50 they could be collected in good numbers during ro...

show abstract

Oil palm plantations in Peninsular Malaysia: Determinants and constraints on expansion

Cited by 74 publications

References 46 publications

Synergy of Active and Passive Remote Sensing Data for Effective Mapping of Oil Palm Plantation in Malaysia

Synergy of Active and Passive Remote Sensing Data for Effective Mapping of Oil Palm Plantation in Malaysia

Is Intercropping an Environmentally-Wise Alternative to Established Oil Palm Monoculture in Tropical Peatlands?

Faecal DNA to the rescue: Shotgun sequencing of non-invasive samples reveals two subspecies of Southeast Asian primates to be Critically Endangered species

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About