Oil palm plantations can supplant once-biodiverse rainforests. As planted areas expand, it is essential to develop landscapes to better balance biodiversity and oil palm production. Strategic “set-asides” offer a key approach.
In recent decades, oil palm has grown dramatically in some of the most biodiverse areas of the tropics, particularly in Indonesia and Malaysia. This expansion has caused significant deforestation (including the loss of over 2.1 million hectares of primary forest in Borneo2, as well as other forests and agroforests), and plantation management often relies heavily on land clearing, herbicides and pesticides. This has generated many direct and indirect impacts on wildlife, ecosystems, climate and human communities3. Further expansion is underway and global demand continues to increase4.
