Environmental Impacts of Large‐Scale Oil Palm Enterprises Exceed that of Smallholdings in Indonesia

Lee, Janice Ser Huay; Abood, Sinan A.; Ghazoul, Jaboury; Barus, Baba; Obidzinski, K.; Koh, Lian Pin

doi:10.1111/conl.12039

Cited by 176 publications

(126 citation statements)

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“…S1) relative to a global total of 40-49 GtCO 2 e from 2000 to 2010 (7). Deforestation in Indonesia is largely driven by the expansion of profitable and legally sanctioned oil palm and timber plantations and logging operations (5,(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13). National and provincial governments zone areas of forest land to be logged or converted to plantation agriculture, and then district governments issue licenses to individual companies for these purposes ("concessions") (14,15).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Reductions in emissions from deforestation from Indonesia’s moratorium on new oil palm, timber, and logging concessions

Busch

Ferretti-Gallon

Engelmann

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

198

128

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To reduce greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation, Indonesia instituted a nationwide moratorium on new license areas (“concessions”) for oil palm plantations, timber plantations, and logging activity on primary forests and peat lands after May 2011. Here we indirectly evaluate the effectiveness of this policy using annual nationwide data on deforestation, concession licenses, and potential agricultural revenue from the decade preceding the moratorium. We estimate that on average granting a concession for oil palm, timber, or logging in Indonesia increased site-level deforestation rates by 17–127%, 44–129%, or 3.1–11.1%, respectively, above what would have occurred otherwise. We further estimate that if Indonesia’s moratorium had been in place from 2000 to 2010, then nationwide emissions from deforestation over that decade would have been 241–615 MtCO2e (2.8–7.2%) lower without leakage, or 213–545 MtCO2e (2.5–6.4%) lower with leakage. As a benchmark, an equivalent reduction in emissions could have been achieved using a carbon price-based instrument at a carbon price of $3.30–7.50/tCO2e (mandatory) or $12.95–19.45/tCO2e (voluntary). For Indonesia to have achieved its target of reducing emissions by 26%, the geographic scope of the moratorium would have had to expand beyond new concessions (15.0% of emissions from deforestation and peat degradation) to also include existing concessions (21.1% of emissions) and address deforestation outside of concessions and protected areas (58.7% of emissions). Place-based policies, such as moratoria, may be best thought of as bridge strategies that can be implemented rapidly while the institutions necessary to enable carbon price-based instruments are developed.

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

Reductions in emissions from deforestation from Indonesia’s moratorium on new oil palm, timber, and logging concessions

Busch

Ferretti-Gallon

Engelmann

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

198

128

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“…A couple of studies, however, use remote sensing data to estimate the share of deforestation on subnational level that is due to palm oil expansion in recent years 13 For a recent investigation into the drivers of deforestation, see the series of studies conducted by various actors, including civil society from the DRC, FAO, Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium and UNEP (http://www.unredd.org/Newsletter35/DRC_Drivers_of_Deforestation/tabid/105802/Default.aspx, accessed 2014-06-11) (2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010). find that close to 60% of deforestation in Kalimantan was due to expanding oil palm plantations and Lee et al (2014) find that 20% of forest clearing in Sumatra was due to expanding palm oil. Given that 80-85% of recent (2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010) deforestation occurred on Sumatra and Kalimantan (Hansen et al 2009, Miettinen et al 2011 and that most of the oil palm expansion have also occurred on these islands-in the period 2004-2009 over 90% of oil palm expansion occurred on these islands according to statistics from the Indonesian Directorate General of Estates (Abdullah 2012)-taken together these two studies give a relatively complete picture the share of deforestation due to oil palm expansion.…”

Section: (D) Paraguaymentioning

confidence: 90%

“…Based on Lee et al (2014) and Page et al (2011) we assume an annual loss of peat carbon of 22.1 tC/ha/yr for palm oil cultivated on peat soils,. In Indonesia it is assumed that roughly 20% of oil palm cultivation occurs on peat land, based again on the remote sensing data from Agus et al (2013), and that 35% of deforestation for timber plantations has occurred on peat land, based on the study by .…”

Section: (D) Paraguaymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Compared to neighboring Indonesia, there seem to have been little conversion of forests to timber plantations in Malaysia Again, as for Indonesia, we also account for the emissions associated with draining and cultivation carbon rich peat soils. We assume an annual loss of peat carbon of 22.1 tC/ha/yr for palm oil cultivated on peat soils, based on Lee et al (2014) and Page et al (2011). We further assume that the share of oil palm cultivation occurring on peat soils increase over time, nearly doubling from 7% in 1990 to 13% in 2010 ).…”

Section: (G) Malaysiamentioning

confidence: 99%

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Trading Forests: Quantifying the Contribution of Global Commodity Markets to Emissions from Tropical Deforestation

2014

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This paper aims to improve our understanding of how and where global supply-chains link consumers of agricultural and forest commodities across the world to forest destruction in tropical countries. A better understanding of these linkages can help inform and support the design of demand-side interventions to reduce tropical deforestation. To that end, we map the link between deforestation for four commodities (beef, soybeans, palm oil, and wood products) in eight case countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Papua New Guinea) to consumption, through international trade. Although few, the studied countries comprise a large share of the internationally traded volumes of the analyzed commodities: 83% of beef and 99% of soybean exports from Latin America, 97% of global palm oil exports, and roughly half of (official) tropical wood products trade. The analysis covers the period 2000-2009. We find that roughly a third of tropical deforestation and associated carbon emissions (3.9 Mha and 1.7 GtCO2) in 2009 can be attributed to our four case commodities in our eight case countries. On average a third of analyzed deforestation was embodied in agricultural exports, mainly to the EU and China. However, in all countries but Bolivia and Brazil, export markets are dominant drivers of forest clearing for our case commodities. If one excludes Brazilian beef on average 57% of deforestation attributed to our case commodities was embodied in exports. The share of emissions that was embodied in exported commodities increased between 2000 and 2009 for every country in our study except Bolivia and Malaysia.JEL Codes: Q23, Q54, L73, Q02, Q17

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“…If the current rate of peat swamp forest conversion continues, and no appropriate land-use policy is adopted, it is predicted that the primary peat swamp forests of South-East Asia will completely disappear by 2030 (Miettinen et al, 2012). Despite the lucrative short-term financial benefits that Indonesia has gained from its palm oil industry, the development has led to widespread deforestation (Carlson et al, 2012;Miettinen et al, 2012;Lee et al, 2014), resulting in biodiversity decline (Fitzherbert et al, 2008;Koh & Wilcove, 2008;Koh et al, 2011;Savilaakso et al, 2014), and immense CO 2 emissions via the removal of above-ground biomass and peat oxidation resulting from peat drainage (Hooijer et al, 2010;Hergoualc'h & Verchot, 2011;Hooijer et al, 2012). A recent estimate suggests that over a quarter of Indonesia's palm oil plantations are located on peatlands (Varkkey, 2012).…”

Section: 1! Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An assessment of the restoration efforts of degraded peatland in central Kalimantan, Indonesia

Dohong¹

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Indonesia's tropical peatlands are an ecosystem of global significance. They contain immense stores of carbon and play a key role in regional and global climate systems. They provide habitat for iconic species such as the orangutan and Sumatran tiger, and they sustain the livelihoods of thousands of local people. Despite these values, Indonesia's peatland ecosystems have been subject to extensive deforestation and degradation during the past two decades. Recurrent peatland fires related to these land use activities have caused smoke pollution across the region, resulting in substantial public health issues and political controversy. More than 50% of the nation's 21 Mha of peatland can be considered as degraded. There is an urgent need to slow the rate of peatland degradation in Indonesia and to effectively restore the vast areas already damaged. A key consideration in this challenge is that tropical peatland restoration is an emerging field of scientific inquiry and little research has been published on the factors that constitute and influence successful restoration of tropical peatland ecosystems.This thesis addresses this gap in the broader ecosystem restoration literature by focusing on a case study of the so-called "Ex-Mega Rice Project" area of Central Kalimantan (an area previously subject to extensive degradation) and examining how successful peatland restoration can be achieved in Indonesia by: (1) reviewing the drivers of peatland degradation in the country in order to better understand the competing interests and broader socioecological context in which restoration activities need to be carried out; (2) studying previous restoration initiatives in Indonesia to better understand the restoration techniques used and the factors influencing their relative effectiveness; (3) analysing the specific tropical peatland restoration technique of "re-wetting" to better understand which elements of the technique best support effective restoration outcomes; (4) analysing the specific issue of illegal oil palm development on Indonesian peatland, including a consideration of what sorts of interventions are required to halt illegal oil palm development and control the associated recurrent fires that have been shown to substantially constrain the effectiveness of restoration initiatives; and (5) presenting an overarching conceptual framework of the factors that influence effective peatland restoration, which can be used by policy makers to devise restoration interventions that should have a greater probability of success.The drivers of peatland degradation in Indonesia can be categorised as direct and indirect. Direct drivers include logging, oil palm development and recurrent fires (mostly caused by large-and smallscale land use activities). Indirect drivers include climate change, the poverty and employment needs ii of local people, and the ineffective and sometimes perversely counter-productive land use governance systems.Techniques previously used to restore peatlands in Indonesia include rewetting through ...

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Environmental Impacts of Large‐Scale Oil Palm Enterprises Exceed that of Smallholdings in Indonesia

Cited by 176 publications

References 26 publications

Reductions in emissions from deforestation from Indonesia’s moratorium on new oil palm, timber, and logging concessions

Reductions in emissions from deforestation from Indonesia’s moratorium on new oil palm, timber, and logging concessions

Trading Forests: Quantifying the Contribution of Global Commodity Markets to Emissions from Tropical Deforestation

An assessment of the restoration efforts of degraded peatland in central Kalimantan, Indonesia

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