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Tropical agriculture

Reconciling oil palm and ecosystems

Nature Sustainability volume 6, pages 481–482 (2023)Cite this article

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Oil palm plantations can supplant once biodiverse tropical forests. As planted areas expand, it is vital to plan landscapes to better balance biodiversity and oil palm production. Strategic ‘set-asides’ offer a key approach.

In recent decades, oil palm has expanded spectacularly in some of the most biodiverse areas of the tropics, especially in Indonesia and Malaysia. This expansion has caused extensive deforestation (including loss of more than 2.1 million ha of primary forests in Borneo2, as well as other forests and agroforests), and management of plantations often relies heavily on clearing, herbicides and pesticides. This has generated many direct and indirect impacts on wildlife, ecosystems, climate and human communities3. Further expansion is ongoing, and global demand continues to rise4.

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Acknowledgements

R.K.R. was supported by an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Research Award (DE210100492).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Geography, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia

    Rebecca K. Runting & Jessie A. Wells

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  1. Rebecca K. Runting
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  2. Jessie A. Wells
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Correspondence to Rebecca K. Runting.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Runting, R.K., Wells, J.A. Reconciling oil palm and ecosystems. Nat Sustain 6, 481–482 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-022-01051-y

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