Oil palm concessions in southern Myanmar consist mostly of unconverted forest.

ABSTRACT: The increased demand for palm oil has led to an expansion of oil palm concessions in the tropics, and the clearing of abundant forest as a result. However, concessions are typically incompletely planted to varying degrees, leaving much land unused. The remaining forests within such concessions are at high risk of deforestation, as there are normally no legal hurdles to their clearance, therefore making them excellent targets for conservation. We investigated the location of oil palm plantations and the other major crop - rubber plantations in southern Myanmar, and compared them to concession boundaries. Our results show that rubber plantations cover much larger areas than oil palm in the region, indicating that rubber is the region's preferred crop. Furthermore, only 15% of the total conce

SUBMITTER: Nomura K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6695397 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature