Balancing economic and ecological functions in smallholder and industrial oil palm plantations.

ABSTRACT: The expansion of the oil palm industry in Indonesia has improved livelihoods in rural communities, but comes at the cost of biodiversity and ecosystem degradation. Here, we investigated ways to balance ecological and economic outcomes of oil palm cultivation. We compared a wide range of production systems, including smallholder plantations, industrialized company estates, estates with improved agronomic management, and estates with native tree enrichment. Across all management types, we assessed multiple indicators of biodiversity, ecosystem functions, management, and landscape structure to identify factors that facilitate economic-ecological win-wins, using palm yields as measure of economic performance. Although, we found that yields in industrialized estates were, on average, twice as h

SUBMITTER: Wenzel A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11047082 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature