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Cashing in palm oil for conservation

Nature volume 448, pages 993–994 (2007)Cite this article

Tropical forests in southeast Asia are under threat from oil-palm growers. This is an opportunity to combine sustainable economic growth with biodiversity conservation, argue Lian Pin Koh and David S. Wilcove.

NGOs contend that expansion of oil-palm agriculture in southeast Asia destroys huge tracts of tropical forests and threatens the survival of many native species, including the orang-utan (Pongo pygmaeus). They have launched aggressive media campaigns that lobby for the boycott of oil-palm products (see for example http://www.cspinet.org/palm/). In response, palm oil producers have accused Western NGOs of unfairly targeting southeast Asia's oil-palm industry while ignoring agricultural activities in other regions that also harm biodiversity, such as soya bean cultivation in South America. They also argue that oil-palm cultivation is not a threat to biodiversity because disturbed forests or existing croplands are converted to plantations with minimal disturbance to pristine habitats.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lian Pin Koh is in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA.,

    Lian Pin Koh

  2. David S. Wilcove is in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA.,

    David S. Wilcove

Authors
  1. Lian Pin Koh
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  2. David S. Wilcove
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Koh, L., Wilcove, D. Cashing in palm oil for conservation. Nature 448, 993–994 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/448993a

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