million hectares of land in Malaysia are covered by oil palm plantations, with an export revenue from oil palm reaching more than RM 46 billion in 2017 (MPOB, 2017; Kushairi et al., 2018). As suitable and accessible land has become scarce the cultivation has shifted from the more suitable mineral soils towards peatlands 1 formerly covered by peat forest (Omar et al., 2010). These cultivations on peatlands have rapidly increased since the 1990s, mainly for oil palm and acacia plantations. By 2015, of the total peatland area in Malaysia, which is around 2.5 million hectares, approximately 1.06 million hectares were covered with oil palm plantations