Rise and fall of forest loss and industrial plantations in Borneo (2000–2017)

Gaveau, David; Locatelli, Bruno; Salim, Mohammad A.; Yaen, Husna; Pacheco, Pablo; Sheil, Douglas

doi:10.1111/conl.12622

Cited by 138 publications

(120 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Oil palm and timber plantations covered 75,480 km 2 on Borneo in 2010, equivalent to 10% of the island's land area (Gaveau, Sloan, et al, ). From 2000 to 2017, the area of industrial plantations on Borneo is estimated to have increased by 170% (6.2 Mha), of which 88% can be attributed to palm oil expansion, with 3.06 Mha of forest converted to plantation (Gaveau et al, ). Two thirds of the Borneo forest area lost to plantations between 1973 and 2015 had been selectively logged prior to conversion (Gaveau, Sloan, et al, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tropical forest and peatland conservation in Indonesia: Challenges and directions

et al. 2019

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Tropical forests and peatlands provide important ecological, climate and socio‐economic benefits from the local to the global scale. However, these ecosystems and their associated benefits are threatened by anthropogenic activities, including agricultural conversion, timber harvesting, peatland drainage and associated fire. Here, we identify key challenges, and provide potential solutions and future directions to meet forest and peatland conservation and restoration goals in Indonesia, with a particular focus on Kalimantan. Through a round‐table, dual‐language workshop discussion and literature evaluation, we recognized 59 political, economic, legal, social, logistical and research challenges, for which five key underlying factors were identified. These challenges relate to the 3Rs adopted by the Indonesian Peatland Restoration Agency (Rewetting, Revegetation and Revitalization), plus a fourth R that we suggest is essential to incorporate into (peatland) conservation planning: Reducing Fires. Our analysis suggests that (a) all challenges have potential for impact on activities under all 4Rs, and many are inter‐dependent and mutually reinforcing, implying that narrowly focused solutions are likely to carry a higher risk of failure; (b) addressing challenges relating to Rewetting and Reducing Fire is critical for achieving goals in all 4Rs, as is considering the local socio‐political situation and acquiring local government and community support; and (c) the suite of challenges faced, and thus conservation interventions required to address these, will be unique to each project, depending on its goals and prevailing local environmental, social and political conditions. With this in mind, we propose an eight‐step adaptive management framework, which could support projects in both Indonesia and other tropical areas to identify and overcome their specific conservation and restoration challenges. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tropical forest and peatland conservation in Indonesia: Challenges and directions

et al. 2019

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“…Li, ), partly through engagement with global demand for commodities. The most prominent such example is palm oil, which has led to the rapid expansion of oil palm plantations across Borneo and Sumatra over the past two decades (Gaveau et al, ). Although the widespread claim that oil palm cultivation is the leading cause of deforestation and orangutan extinction in these areas is debatable (see, e.g., Ancrenaz, Meijaard, Wich, & Simery, , table 1), its expansion has had significant implications for orangutan survival: habitat loss, degradation and fragmentation, as well as increased incidences of human–orangutan conflict.…”

Section: Key Concerns and Challenges: A Synthetic Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conservation and the social sciences: Beyond critique and co‐optation. A case study from orangutan conservation

et al. 2020

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Interactions between conservation and the social sciences are frequently characterized by either critique (of conservation by social scientists) or co‐optation (of social scientific methods and insights by conservationists). This article seeks to push beyond these two dominant positions by exploring how conservationists and social scientists can engage in mutually transformative dialogue. Jointly authored by conservation scientists and social scientists, it uses the global nexus of orangutan conservation as a lens onto current challenges and possibilities facing the conservation–social science relationship. We begin with a cross‐disciplinary overview of recent developments in orangutan conservation—particularly those concerned with its social, political and other human dimensions. The article then undertakes a synthetic analysis of key challenges in orangutan conservation—working across difference, juggling scales and contexts and dealing with politics and political economy—and links them to analogous concerns in the conservation–social science relationship. Finally, we identify some ways by which orangutan conservation specifically, and the conservation–social science relationship more generally, can move forward: through careful use of proxies as bridging devices, through the creation of new, shared spaces, and through a willingness to destabilize and overhaul status quos. This demands an open‐ended, unavoidably political commitment to critical reflexivity and self‐transformation on the part of both conservationists and social scientists. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.

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“…Gingold (2010) reported that many millions of hectares of Indonesia would fit the criteria of degraded lands. To clarify these criteria, the Rosoman et al (2017) group, comprised of industry and NGO, produced the High Carbon Stock (HCS) Approach Toolkit, for maintaining carbon stock and managing GHG's, which provides guidelines on assessing carbon stock and managing the carbon inventory ( Figure 5). Taking this approach further, the Environmental Defence Fund (Miller and Cai, 2015) have proposed Zero Deforestation Zones in Indonesia, but also recommend meeting future palm oil needs through intensification of production and expansion onto degraded lands.…”

Section: Greenhouse Gas Emissionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Source: Rosoman et al (2017). Given oil palm is grown as a cash crop and used for a wide range of purposes, the impact of cultivation on standing biomass is only part of the story.…”

Section: Greenhouse Gas Emissionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

LEARNING TO LOVE THE WORLD’S MOST HATED CROP –Review Articles

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Crawford

Traeholt

et al. 2019

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The 2019 Inter-governmental Panel (IPCC) Report on Climate Change and Land highlighted the urgency and scale of the environmental impact from human-induced landscape change. Palm oil has historically had a particularly negative reputation for driving deforestation, biodiversity loss, greenhouse gas emissions, social exploitation and damaging health. In the eyes of many in the West, it is regarded as the world's most hated crop. However, palm is highly productive compared with other crops and produces 40% of the worlds edible oil from only 5% of vegetable oil producing land and 0.4% of agricultural land in total.It has the potential to meet future demand for oil with minimum additional environmental and climate impact compared with other sources of vegetable oil. The related high value density has the potential to move millions of vulnerable smallholder farmers out of poverty. Given the conclusions of the IPCC Climate and Land Report, it is therefore important to re-examine the crop's reputation in light of the accumulated evidence and to properly understand the full impacts across the environmental, health, social and economic factors. We present a comprehensive review of the benefits and risks of the crop across these dimensions and provide a new synthesis. We conclude that while oil palm has had a significant negative impact on habitat and biodiversity, it plays a minor role compared with poaching, illegal logging and threats from climate change. There are important opportunities for the industry to reverse this damage. Its reputation for negative health impacts are not backed up by the scientific evidence and indeed there may be health benefits from substituting some oils in the diet with oil palm. Positive social and economic impacts are most obvious in areas where proper market-led economies are in place, but there can be significant negative social impacts in less developed areas. We conclude that much of the reputation of palm oil is not based on a balanced interpretation of the scientific evidence. Provided future development is zero deforestation, does not occur on peat, uses methane capture technology at the mills, empowers indigenous smallholders and supports the regeneration of secondary forest, we conclude that oil palm can be the most environmentally, socially and economically sustainable means to meet future demand for vegetable oil. Indeed, with pro-active collaboration with relevant non-government organisations, oil palm can be part of the solution to reversing the degradation of tropical forest biomes.

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Rise and fall of forest loss and industrial plantations in Borneo (2000–2017)

Cited by 138 publications

References 18 publications

Tropical forest and peatland conservation in Indonesia: Challenges and directions

Tropical forest and peatland conservation in Indonesia: Challenges and directions

Conservation and the social sciences: Beyond critique and co‐optation. A case study from orangutan conservation

LEARNING TO LOVE THE WORLD’S MOST HATED CROP –Review Articles

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