York researchers contribute to 'Partnerships For The Planet' report

Oil palm agriculture is a major cause of deforestation which contributes to biodiversity and carbon emissions.

Researchers, led by a team at York, measured trees and other vegetation in 14 forest areas protected in RSPO-certified oil palm plantations in Malaysian Borneo. Their key findings are:

• Patches of protected forest play an important role in helping to conserve carbon as well as biodiversity.
• Where a tenth of the plantation is protected as natural forest, plantations store up to 20 per cent more carbon than plantations with no protected forest.
• Patches with more carbon also have higher plant diversity, but in comparison to primary rainforest, the forest areas protected within oil palm plantations have low numbers of tree seedlings, and so may contain fewer trees in the years to come.

As a result, the team has recommended companies managing oil palm plantations should manage their protected forest to improve the potential for trees to produce seedlings and for the seedlings to survive, which could include planting additional seedlings or cutting back vines that prevent seedlings growing. They also recommend companies maintain large forest patches where possible to project rainforest biodiversity.

• Find out more about the project Socially and Environmentally Sustainable Oil Palm Research (SEnSOR)

See the NCUB report