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The future of forests and orangutans (Pongo abelii) in Sumatra: predicting impacts of oil palm plantations, road construction, and mechanisms for reducing carbon emissions from deforestation
Payments for reduced carbon emissions from deforestation (RED) are now attracting attention as a way to halt tropical deforestation. Northern Sumatra comprises an area of 65 000 km2 that is both the site of Indonesia’s first planned RED initiative, and the stronghold of 92% of remaining Sumatran orangutans. Under current…
Participatory methods for planning the future in forest communities
Forest devolution and government decentralization have increased community control over forests. Remoteness, low literacy, and lack of formal planning experience often leave forest communities unprepared for their new responsibilities. Forest communities need to develop skills that allow them to establish goals and make decisions transparently and democratically and to negotiate…
Sentinel Landscapes initiative: Stocktake and baseline data analysis for future landscape management and monitoring in West Kalimantan
This publication is part of the Sentinel Landscape network initiative established in eight sites around the world representative of widely different biophysical and socioeconomic contexts. Here we present and summarize the results of the research and baseline studies carried out in West Kalimantan, Borneo. Within the Kapuas Hulu regency, two…
Modelling environmental and socio-economic trade-offs associated with land-sparing and land-sharing approaches to oil palm expansion
The effectiveness of land-sharing and land-sparing approaches has been widely debated. Yet, few studies quantify the environmental and socio-economic outcomes of these approaches within a real-world landscape. Indonesia’s plans to increase its palm oil production present an opportunity to investigate the potential environmental and socio-economic implications of the land-sharing and…
Ecosystem services under future oil palm expansion scenarios in West Kalimantan, Indonesia
This study analyzes the five primary ecosystem services and their trade-offs and synergies associated with future scenarios of oil palm plantations in West Kalimantan, Indonesia. Three plausible future scenarios were assessed: 1) business as usual, 2) conservation and, 3) sustainable intensification, based on current land-use policy and spatial planning and…
Assessing impacts on ecosystem services under various plausible oil palm expansion scenarios in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia
The land-use change caused by oil palm expansion results in adverse impacts on ecosystem functions and services provided by natural forests. This study assesses the impacts of oil palm expansion on key ecosystem services and analyzes the trade-offs among ecosystem services under four plausible future land-use scenarios in Central Kalimantan,…
Palm oil and likely futures: Assessing the potential impacts of zero deforestation commitments and a moratorium on large-scale oil palm plantations in Indonesia
This brief examines two contrasting policy options: the implementation of zero deforestation commitments by the private sector and a complete moratorium on the expansion of large-scale oil palm plantations, and compares them to a situation without policy action. The zero deforestation commitments and the moratorium on large-scale oil palm plantations…