Extending palm oil production in Africa threatens
Scientists found only a few small 'areas of compromise' in Africa with a high suitability for oil palm cultivation and a low potential impact on the primate species living there.
Researchers produced and then compared two maps, one on primate vulnerability and the other on suitability for oil palm cultivation. The maps revealed striking similarities across sub-Saharan Africa, with areas of high primate vulnerability and high oil palm suitability overlapping in equatorial and forested regions across West and Central Africa.
Small room for compromise between oil palm
Small room for compromise between oil palm cultivation and primate conservation in Africa Posted on August 13, 2025 by sergewich We just published a new paper in PNAS on the potential expansion of oil palm in Africa and its potential impacts on primates.
More information: Giovanni Strona et al. Small room for compromise between oil palm cultivation and primate conservation in Africa, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2018).DOI: 10
Palm oil cultivation in Africa poses threat to forests
Consistent with dramatic effects of palm oil cultivation on biodiversity in southeast Asia, “reconciling a large-scale development of oil palm in Africa with primate conservation will be a great
Extending palm oil production in Africa threatens primate. Extending palm oil production in Africa threatens primate conservation “Future expansion of the palm oil industry could have a dramatic impact on African primates, according to the findings of a new study led by the Joint Research Centre, the European Commission’s science and
Oil palm expansion and deforestation in Southwest
Oil palm detection using remote sensing. a Pixel composites of Landsat imagery for the years 2000 and 2025 used to classify oil palm in Southwest Cameroon. Scale bar: 80 km. b–e Two locations
A new article just published in PNAS reveals how future expansion of the palm-oil industry could have terrible consequences for African primates.. Researchers from the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, CIRAD, Liverpool John Moores University, and ETH Zurich searched for “areas of compromise” combining high oil palm suitability with low primate vulnerability, as possible
Tropical Agricultural Production, Conservation
Figure 1. Total forest covered by oil palm plantations, and hence losses of natural forests, in Indonesia and Malaysia (Mongabay, 2012) From figure 1 it can be seen that the area under oil palm plantations has risen significantly since 1990 and this expansion is a major driver for forest loss. The rapid growth of the oil palm industry can be attributed to its uses, which include food products
Large Palm Oil Mill Manufacturer in Malaysia and Indonesia. Small room for compromise between oil palm cultivation and. We applied this approach to Africa, by combining data on oil palm suitability with primate distribution, diversity, and vulnerability. We found that such areas of compromise are very rare throughout the continent (0.13 Mha
- Which country grows the most oil palms in Malaysia?
- Sarawak still has the largest area of oil palm cultivation on peat, followed by Peninsula Malaysia and Sabah (Figure 6). The percentage of Malaysian oil palm cultivation on peat in 2009 was 13.3%, compared to 8.2% in 2003. Up to 2009, some 27.4% of Malaysian peatland had been cultivated with oil palm.
- Are spared oil palm areas'marginal' for rice production?
- Because most land in the spared oil palm areas is under cropland (predominantly rice cultivation), we also identified the spatial overlap between spared oil palm areas and areas currently ‘marginal’ for rice production (arbitrarily defined as yielding <2 t ha −1) 17.
- How big is Malaysia's oil palm area?
- The area detected was 6.8% more than the total oil palm registered area (4.69 million hectares) as reported by the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) for 2009. The additional areas detected were the yet-to-be registered new oil palm areas and unplanted areas (roads, drain, quarters, etc.).
- Which area is biophysically suitable for oil palm cultivation in India?
- The area biophysically suitable for oil palm cultivation in India varies from 7.86 to 73.26 Mha depending on both future climate and water supply (Table 1 and Fig. 1).
- Should India expand oil palm plantations?
- Of special concern is India’s push to expand oil palm plantations in its northeast at the cost of some of the world’s most important ecosystems for biodiversity (notably, the East Himalayan and Indo-Myanmar biodiversity hotspots) 16.
- How can India reduce global pressure on palm oil lands?
- As the largest market for palm oil globally, and one that is poised to grow rapidly, India can reduce future pressure on forest lands across the global tropics—especially in emerging production landscapes such as tropical Africa and America—by meeting most of its future domestic demand in areas vital for neither biodiversity nor food production.
