Land Use Changes and GHG Emissions from Tropical Forest Conversion by Oil Palm Plantations in Riau Province, Indonesia

Abstract

Increasing prices and demand for biofuel and cooking oil from importer countries have caused a remarkable expansion of oil palm plantations in Indonesia. In this paper, we attempt to monitor the expansion of oil palm plantations on peat land and in tropical forests. We measure the GHG emissions from the land conversion activities at provincial scale. Using Landsat images from three different periods (1990s, 2000s and 2012), we classified LULC of the Riau Province, which is the largest oil palm producing region in Indonesia. A hybrid method of integration, generated by combining automatic processing and manual analysis, yields the best results. We found that the tropical rainforest cover decreased from ∼63% in the 1990s to ∼37% in the 2000s. By 2012, the remaining tropical rainforest cover was only ∼22%. From the 1990s to the 2000s, conversion of forests and peat lands was the primary source of emissions, total CO2 emitted to the atmosphere was estimated at ∼26.6 million tCO2.y-1, with 40.62% and 59.38% of the emissions from conversion of peat lands and forests, respectively. Between 2000 and 2012, the total CO2 emitted to the atmosphere was estimated at ∼5.2 million tCO2. y-1, with 69.94% and 27.62% of the emissions from converted peat lands and converted forests, respectively. The results show that in the Riau Province, the oil palm industry boomed in the period from 1990 to 2000, with transformation of tropical forest and peat land as the primary source of emissions. The decrease of CO2 emissions in the period from 2000 to 2012 is possibly due to the enforcement of a moratorium on deforestation.

Managing fire risk during drought: the influence of certification and El Niño on fire-driven forest conversion for oil palm in Southeast Asia

“…Between 1990-2010, more than one-third of new oil palm plantations replaced forested landscapes in Southeast Asia (Gunarso et al, 2013;Gaveau et al, 2016), with rates as high as 90 % in regional hotspots such as coastal West Kalimantan, Indonesia (Carlson et al, 2013). Conversion of primary and logged forests for oil palm, including vast areas with deep organic peat soils, contributed to significant greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from fire, decomposition, and peat oxidation (Page et al, 2002;Hooijer et al, 2012;Ramdani and Hino, 2013;Field et al, 2016;Huijnen et al, 2016). Environmental concerns with palm oil production extend beyond GHG emissions, however, as forest loss threatens biodiversity (Pimm et al, 2014;Vijay et al, 2016) and particulate emissions from fires are a major public health concern in Indonesia and downwind population centers such as Singapore (Murdiyarso et al, 2004;Gaveau et al, 2014;Kunii et al, 2002;Reddington et al, 2014;Marlier et al, 2015;Chisholm et al, 2016;Johnston et al, 2015).…”

Toward a microbial palm oil substitute: oleaginous yeasts cultured on lignocellulose

“…The organization also persuades buyers of palm oil to demand that it is RSPO certified. After working for over ten years and securing the support of most of the largest purchasers of palm oil, only 13 million tonnes (3.44 million hectares) out of approximately 57 million tonnes were certified at the time of writing …”

Long‐term disturbance dynamics and resilience of tropical peat swamp forests

“…), could challenge the resilience of the system, causing it to shift from a vast sink to an extensive source of greenhouse gases (Fargione et al . ; Ramdani & Hino ; Dommain et al . ).…”

“…They also provide a range of ecosystem services: locally, they act as a buffer against flooding and drought (Andriesse 1988), prevent saline water intrusion (Liong & Siong 1979;Phillips 1998), as well as other more indirect services for communities (Silvius & Giesen 1996;Cole 2013); and globally, they represent a vast CO 2 sink, playing a central role in strategies to mitigate carbon emissions (Page, Rieley & Banks 2011). It is widely reported that this is a vulnerable ecosystem (Page et al 2004;UNFCCC 2013) and activities that disrupt the tight interrelationship between peat, water and vegetation (Dommain, Couwenberg & Joosten 2010), notably drainage (Hooijer et al 2011), could challenge the resilience of the system, causing it to shift from a vast sink to an extensive source of greenhouse gases (Fargione et al 2008;Ramdani & Hino 2013;Dommain et al 2014). Changes in both future climate, especially reduced regional precipitation (Li et al 2007), and land-use may also contribute to such a shift.…”