Shifting patterns of oil palm driven deforestation in Indonesia and implications for zero-deforestation commitments

Austin, Kemen; Mosnier, Aline; Pirker, J.; McCallum, Ian; Fritz, Steffen; Kasibhatla, P. S.

doi:10.1016/j.landusepol.2017.08.036

Cited by 249 publications

(198 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…figure 2). This corresponds closely to previous estimates of oil palm driven deforestation nationwide in Indonesia(Agus et al 2013, Austin et al 2017b. Notably, we observed a peak in oil palm driven deforestation in 2008-2009, when it reached almost 40% of national deforestation, followed by a gradual decline up to 2014-2016, when it dropped to less than 15% of deforestation.…”

supporting

confidence: 92%

What causes deforestation in Indonesia?

Austin

Schwantes

et al. 2019

Environ. Res. Lett.

321

227

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We investigate the causes of deforestation in Indonesia, a country with one of the highest rates of primary natural forest loss in the tropics, annually between 2001 and 2016. We use high spatial resolution imagery made available on Google Earth to characterize the land cover types following a random selection of deforestation events, drawn from the Global Forest Change dataset. Notorious in the region, large-scale oil palm and timber plantations together contributed more than two-fifths of nationwide deforestation over our study period, with a peak in late aughts followed by a notable decline up to 2016. Conversion of forests to grasslands, which comprised an average of one-fifth of national deforestation, rose sharply in dominance in years following periods of considerable fire activity, particularly in 2016. Small-scale agriculture and small-scale plantations also contributed onefifth of nationwide forest loss and were the dominant drivers of loss outside the major islands of Indonesia. Although relatively small contributors to total deforestation, logging roads were responsible for a declining share of deforestation, and mining activities were responsible for an increasing share, over the study period. Direct drivers of deforestation in Indonesia are thus spatially and temporally dynamic, suggesting the need for forest conservation policy responses tailored at the subnational level, and new methods for monitoring the causes of deforestation over time.

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supporting

confidence: 92%

What causes deforestation in Indonesia?

Austin

Schwantes

et al. 2019

Environ. Res. Lett.

321

227

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“…Over the last decade oil palm expansion has partly shifted from forested to non-forested lands providing an opportunity for increasing sustainability (Gaveau et al 2016, Furumo andAide 2017). In Indonesia, the proportion of OP plantations directly replacing forests declined from 54%-18% between the 1995−2000 and 2010−2015 (Austin et al 2017) and 79% of OP expansion in Latin America occured on previously cleared land (Furumo and Aide 2017).Such a transition from non-forested land to OP seems promising for a sustainable development of OP, but a cautious assessment and management of water resources is still needed. Hence, while more research is required to understand the ecohydrological impacts of different land cover transitions to OP (e.g.…”

Section: Broader Impactmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) plantations expansion has boomed over the last decades (global planted area increased from 6-16 Mha between 1990 and 2010 (Pirker et al 2016)), mostly in Southeast Asia (Koh et al 2011, Dislich et al 2017 at the expense of biodiversityrich tropical forests (Koh et al 2011, Pirker et al 2016, Vijay et al 2016 and other land-covers such as pastures or pre-existing plantations (Gaveau et al 2016, Austin et al 2017, Furumo and Aide 2017. Oil palm (OP) is the most profitable and land-efficient oil crop in the world (Wahid et al 2005, Dislich et al 2017, Yan 2017 thanks to low management costs and high fruit productivity per hectare, i.e.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecohydrological changes after tropical forest conversion to oil palm

Manoli

Meijide

Huth

et al. 2018

Environ. Res. Lett.

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Given their ability to provide food, raw material and alleviate poverty, oil palm (OP) plantations are driving significant losses of biodiversity-rich tropical forests, fuelling a heated debate on ecosystem degradation and conservation. However, while OP-induced carbon emissions and biodiversity losses have received significant attention, OP water requirements have been marginalized and little is known on the ecohydrological changes (water and surface energy fluxes) occurring from forest clearing to plantation maturity. Numerical simulations supported by field observations from seven sites in Southeast Asia (five OP plantations and two tropical forests) are used here to illustrate the temporal evolution of OP actual evapotranspiration (ET), infiltration/runoff, gross primary productivity (GPP) and surface temperature as well as their changes relative to tropical forests. Model results from large-scale commercial plantations show that young OP plantations decrease ecosystem ET, causing hotter and drier climatic conditions, but mature plantations (age > 8−9 yr) have higher GPP and transpire more water (up to +7.7%) than the forests they have replaced. This is the result of physiological constraints on water use efficiency and the extremely high yield of OP (six to ten times higher than other oil crops). Hence, the land use efficiency of mature OP, i.e. the high productivity per unit of land area, comes at the expense of water consumption in a trade of water for carbon that may jeopardize local water resources. Sequential replanting and herbaceous ground cover can reduce the severity of such ecohydrological changes and support local water/climate regulation.

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“…Nevertheless, our regional simulations with different forcing methods and interception parameterizations all indicate that oil palm expansion in Indonesia could increase regional water use (ET) by 15% to 20% and incur aridification by decreasing top 1‐m soil moisture (−3% to −11%). These findings are based on spatial comparison of existing oil palm and forest areas in the current climate and 2010 land use, though not all oil palm plantations were developed from forests (Austin et al, ). Implications of conversions from other land cover types (e.g., annual crops, scrubland, and savannah) to oil palm are beyond the scope of this study.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In Southeast Asia, large areas of natural forests have been converted to oil palm plantations (Gunarso et al, ; Koh et al, ). In particular, since the 1990s, the Indonesian regions of Sumatra and Kalimantan experienced the highest rate (average 450,000 ha/year) of oil palm expansion anywhere in the world (Austin et al, ; Carlson et al, ; Gaveau et al, ; Meijaard et al, ; Statistics Indonesia, ). In situ and remote sensing observations have found significant impacts of such land cover change on carbon emissions (Carlson et al, ; Guillaume et al, ), water and energy fluxes (Meijide et al, ; Merten et al, ), surface temperatures (Sabajo et al, ), and microclimates (Hardwick et al, ; Meijide et al, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reconciling Canopy Interception Parameterization and Rainfall Forcing Frequency in the Community Land Model for Simulating Evapotranspiration of Rainforests and Oil Palm Plantations in Indonesia

Fan

Meijide

Lawrence

et al. 2019

J Adv Model Earth Syst

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By mediating evapotranspiration processes, plant canopies play an important role in the terrestrial water cycle and regional climate. Substantial uncertainties exist in modeling canopy water interception and related hydrological processes due to rainfall forcing frequency selection and varying canopy traits. Here we design a new time interpolation method “zero” to better represent convective‐type precipitation in tropical regions. We also implement and recalibrate plant functional type‐specific interception parameters for rainforests and oil palm plantations, where oil palms express higher water interception capacity than forests, using the Community Land Model (CLM) versions 4.5 and 5.0 with CLM‐Palm embedded. Reconciling the interception scheme with realistic precipitation forcing produces more accurate canopy evaporation and transpiration for both plant functional types, which in turn improves simulated evapotranspiration and energy partitioning when benchmarked against observations from our study sites in Indonesia and an extensive literature review. Regional simulations for Sumatra and Kalimantan show that industrial oil palm plantations have 18–27% higher transpiration and 15–20% higher evapotranspiration than forests on an annual regional average basis across different ages or successional stages, even though the forests experience higher average precipitation according to reanalysis data. Our land‐only modeling results indicate that current oil palm plantations in Sumatra and Kalimantan use 15–20% more water (mean 220 mm or 20 Gt) per year compared to lowland rainforests of the same extent. The extra water use by oil palm reduces soil moisture and runoff that could affect ecosystem services such as productivity of staple crops and availability of drinking water in rural areas.

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Shifting patterns of oil palm driven deforestation in Indonesia and implications for zero-deforestation commitments

Cited by 249 publications

References 23 publications

What causes deforestation in Indonesia?

What causes deforestation in Indonesia?

Ecohydrological changes after tropical forest conversion to oil palm

Reconciling Canopy Interception Parameterization and Rainfall Forcing Frequency in the Community Land Model for Simulating Evapotranspiration of Rainforests and Oil Palm Plantations in Indonesia

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