Synergies for Improving Oil Palm Production and Forest Conservation in Floodplain Landscapes

Abstract

Lowland tropical forests are increasingly threatened with conversion to oil palm as global demand and high profit drives crop expansion throughout the world’s tropical regions. Yet, landscapes are not homogeneous and regional constraints dictate land suitability for this crop. We conducted a regional study to investigate spatial and economic components of forest conversion to oil palm within a tropical floodplain in the Lower Kinabatangan, Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. The Kinabatangan ecosystem harbours significant biodiversity with globally threatened species but has suffered forest loss and fragmentation. We mapped the oil palm and forested landscapes (using object-based-image analysis, classification and regression tree analysis and on-screen digitising of high-resolution imagery) and undertook economic modelling. Within the study region (520,269 ha), 250,617 ha is cultivated with oil palm with 77% having high Net-Present-Value (NPV) estimates ($413/ha− yr–$637/ha− yr); but 20.5% is under-producing. In fact 6.3% (15,810 ha) of oil palm is commercially redundant (with negative NPV of $-299/ha− yr-$-65/ha− yr) due to palm mortality from flood inundation. These areas would have been important riparian or flooded forest types. Moreover, 30,173 ha of unprotected forest remain and despite its value for connectivity and biodiversity 64% is allocated for future oil palm. However, we estimate that at minimum 54% of these forests are unsuitable for this crop due to inundation events. If conversion to oil palm occurs, we predict a further 16,207 ha will become commercially redundant. This means that over 32,000 ha of forest within the floodplain would have been converted for little or no financial gain yet with significant cost to the ecosystem. Our findings have globally relevant implications for similar floodplain landscapes undergoing forest transformation to agriculture such as oil palm. Understanding landscape level constraints to this crop, and transferring these into policy and practice, may provide conservation and economic opportunities within these seemingly high opportunity cost landscapes.

Analysis of genetic diversity and population structure of oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) from China and Malaysia based on species-specific simple sequence repeat markers

“…Commercial E. guineensis (African oil palm) originated in intertropical Africa (Ting et al, 2014) and was imported into South Asia, where its industrial plantations started approximately 100 years ago. It has become one of the most important crops in Indonesia and Malaysia (Abram et al, 2014;Low et al, 2014). The history of oil palm introduction into China is more than 80-years-old.…”

Can Riparian Forest Buffers Increase Yields From Oil Palm Plantations?

“…With mean annual rainfall exceeding 2,000 mm and consistent mean temperatures~30°C, the Kinabatangan floodplain is ideal for oil palm cultivation (Pirker et al, 2016). Between 1990 and 2010, the majority of the Kinabatangan's floodplain forest was converted to oil palm plantations (Abram et al, 2014), leaving a fragmented landscape of protected forests partially connected by riparian buffers.…”

“…For each scenario we modeled annual centerline migration and calculated mean bank erosion rates at 25-year intervals (up to 100 years), corresponding approximately to a full plantation cropping cycle (from planting to maturity to decline and replanting; Abram et al, 2014;Butler et al, 2009). To produce a set of polygons representing the area of eroded bank material, we superimposed two channel centerlines from model…”

“…Here we numerically modeled how lateral migration rates along the Lower Kinabatangan River, part of a large tropical river system used intensively for oil palm agriculture (Abram et al, 2014), might respond to the hypothetical removal or retention of adjacent riparian forest. We then estimated how those changes in migration rates might affect economic returns from oil palm on the proximal floodplain.…”

First known satellite collaring of a viverrid species: preliminary performance and implications of GPS tracking Malay civets (Viverra tangalunga)

“…This study was based in the Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary (LKWS), a 270 km 2 area of protected secondary forest flanking the Kinabatangan River (Ancrenaz et al 2004;Goossens et al 2005). Comprised of ten riparian lots of varying degrees of disturbance history, the sanctuary contains a mixture of dry lowland, semi-inundated, and swamp forests interspersed with small grasslands (Abram et al 2014). …”