Palm oil expansion in tropical forest margins or sustainability of production? Focal issues of regulations and private standards

Oil Palm Agroforestry Can Achieve Economic and Environmental Gains as Indicated by Multifunctional Land Equivalent Ratios

“…On much larger areas logging rights have been obtained for planned oil palm expansion. The deforestation observed and the associated greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity loss have hence been attributed to "agriculture" as driver, rather than to transformations to fastwood plantations as part of "forest management" (Koh and Wilcove, 2008;Sheil et al, 2009;Koh et al, 2011;Carlson et al, 2012;van Noordwijk et al, 2017a). Yet, expansion of oil palm and the ease of obtaining the required permits have had major effects, replacing a very diverse natural vegetation, or still diverse rubber-based agroforestry (Joshi et al, 2003;Tata et al, 2008;Villamor et al, 2014) with a monoculture of oil palms, leaving only small riparian zones or local hills as "high conservation value areas."…”

Implementing sustainability commitments for palm oil in Indonesia: Governance arrangements of sustainability initiatives involving public and private actors

“…There is much controversy regarding palm oil development in Indonesia, which is mainly linked to its contradictory impacts (van Noordwijk et al 2017). On the one hand, many perceive the sector as a significant driver of economic growth and important for the development of Indonesia's economy at both the national and sub-national levels.…”

Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) production in Indonesia: carbon footprint and diversification options

“…In the two countries that currently dominate the world market, Indonesia and Malaysia, the expansion has had both positive (mostly in terms of welfare) and negative (mostly in terms of environment) impacts. Concerns for negative environmental and social effects of oil palm expansion, especially expressed in importer countries has led to 'issue attention cycles' (Mithöfer et al, 2017;van Noordwijk et al, 2017) that resulted in standards and certification schemes. Specifically related to the potential use as biofuel feedstock this has made the greenhouse gasses emission saving from palm oil production a topic of high relevance.…”

“…Negative perceptions mostly came from human rights advocates and environmental NGOs and importer countries, calling attention to negative impacts of the expansion in forest frontier zones, where deforestation led to GHG emissions and loss of biodiversity (Koh et al, 2008;Reijnders and Huijbregts, 2008). 'Issue cycle' dynamics of the ensuing debate were reviewed by van Noordwijk et al (2017), calling attention to the contrast between Kalimantan, where most of the forest frontier expansion with its social and environmental effects took place, and Sumatra, where most of the palm oil is produced and where the shift to smallholder production has advanced furthest (Jelsma et al, 2017).…”

“…On much larger areas logging rights have been obtained on the basis of planned oil palm expansion. The deforestation observed and the associated greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity loss have hence been attributed to 'agriculture' as driver, rather than to 'forest management' (Sheil et al 2007, Koh andWilcove, 2008;Koh et al, 2011;Carlson et al, 2012;van Noordwijk et al, 2017). Yet, expansion of oil palm and the ease of obtaining the required permits have had major effects, replacing a very diverse natural vegetation, or still diverse rubber-based agroforestry (Joshi et al 2003;Tata et al 2008;Villamor et al 2014) with a monoculture of oil palms, leaving only small riparian zones or local hills as 'high conservation value areas'.…”