Tag: oil palms
Scaling up oil palm Agroforestry in the Brazilian Amazon: lessons learned from the SAFDENDE Project in Tomé Açu Pará
The Migration-Environment Nexus: The Situation in Northwest Uganda
The migration-environment nexus of greatest concern today involves the South Sudanese refugees, about 90% of whom now live in what was until their arrival a mosaic of grassland, woody savannah, open and closed woodland, and forest. They have cleared vast expanses of the land for homesteads and cultivation, and their very survival hinges on their ability to utilize trees for firewood, construction, fruit and other non-timber products. For water, they depend on boreholes and rivers, the sustainability of which also relies on healthy tree cover. The pressure on the environment is immense. Trees have vanished in many areas, with severe consequences for now and the future.
Oil palm agroforestry: fostering socially inclusive and sustainable production in Brazil
In the myriad national and subnational Latin American contexts, oil palm expansion has led to varied and often controversial outcomes (Castiblanco, Etter and Ramirez 2015; Richard and Aide 2017). Evidence is emerging that oil palm adoption can have positive impacts on smallholder livelihoods (e.g., Feintrenie, Chong and Levang 2010), but impacts depend on the relationships between farmers and processors. Key aspects include types of supply arrangement, such as nucleus estates with smallholder outgrowers versus independent farmers, and technical aspects, e.g., prescribed technological packages, minimum area required, minimum supply volumes and technical assistance.
Aboveground carbon stocks in oil palm plantations and the threshold for carbon-neutral vegetation conversion on mineral soils
The carbon (C) footprint of palm-oil production is needed to judge emissions from potential biofuel use. Relevance includes wider sustainable palm oil debates. Within life cycle analysis, aboveground C debt is incurred if the vegetation replaced had a higher C stock than oil palm plantations. Our study included 25 plantations across Indonesia, in a stratified study design representing the range of conditions in which oil palm is grown. From allometric equations for palm biomass and observed growth rates, we estimated the time-averaged aboveground C stock for 25-year rotations and 95%-confidence intervals to be 42.07 (42.04-42.10) Mg C ha-1 for plantations managed by company on mineral soil, 40.03 (39.75-40.30) Mg C ha-1 for plantations managed by company on peat, and 37.76 (37.42-38.09) Mg C ha-1 for smallholder oil palm on mineral soils. Oil palm can be established C debt-free on mineral soils with aboveground C stocks below these values; neutrality of mineral soil C pools was documented in a parallel study. Acknowledging variation in shoot:root ratios, the types of vegetation that can be converted debt-free to oil palm include grasslands and shrub, but not monocultural rubber plantations, rubber agroforest, and similar secondary or logged-over forests of higher C stock.
Quantifying nitrogen losses in oil palm plantations: Models and challenges
Oil palm is the most rapidly expanding tropical perennial crop. Its cultivation raises environmental concerns, notably related to the use of nitrogen (N) fertilisers and the associated pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. While numerous and diverse models exist to estimate N losses from agriculture, very few are currently available for tropical perennial crops. Moreover, there is a lack of critical analysis of their performance in the specific context of tropical perennial cropping systems. We assessed the capacity of 11 models and 29 sub-models to estimate N losses in a typical oil palm plantation over a 25-year growth cycle, through leaching and runoff, and emissions of NH3, N2, N2O, and NOx. Estimates of total N losses were very variable, ranging from 21 to 139 kg N ha-1 yr-1. On average, 31 % of the losses occurred during the first 3 years of the cycle. Nitrate leaching accounted for about 80 % of the losses. A comprehensive Morris sensitivity analysis showed the most influential variables to be soil clay content, rooting depth, and oil palm N uptake. We also compared model estimates with published field measurements. Many challenges remain in modelling processes related to the peculiarities of perennial tropical crop systems such as oil palm more accurately. © Author(s) 2016.
Carbon neutral? No change in mineral soil carbon stock under oil palm plantations derived from forest or non-forest in Indonesia
Sustainability criteria for palm oil production guide new planting toward non-forest land cover on mineral soil, avoiding carbon debts caused by forest and peat conversion. Effects on soil carbon stock (soil Cstock) of land use change trajectories from forest and non-forest to oil palm on mineral soils include initial decline and subsequent recovery, however modeling efforts and life-cycle accounting are constrained by lack of comprehensive data sets; only few case studies underpin current debate. We analyzed soil Cstock (Mg ha1), soil bulk density (BD, g cm3) and soil organic carbon concentration (Corg, %) from 155 plots in 20 oil palm plantations across the major production areas of Indonesia, identifying trends during a production cycle on 6 plantations with sufficient spread in plot age. Plots were sampled in four management zones: weeded circle (WC), interrow (IR), frond stacks (FS), and harvest paths (HP); three depth intervals 0–5, 5–15 and 15–30 cm were sampled in each zone. Compared to the initial condition, increases in Corg (16.2%) and reduction in BD (8.9%) in the FS zone, was compensated by decrease in Corg (21.4%) and increase in BD (6.6%) in the HP zone, with intermediate results elsewhere. For a weighted average of the four management zones and after correction for equal mineral soil basis, the net temporal trend in soil Cstock in the top 30 cm of soil across all data was not significantly different from zero in both forest- and non-forest-derived oil palm plantations. Individual plantations experienced net decline, net increase or U-shaped trajectories. The 2% difference in mean soil Cstock in forest and non-forest derived oil palm plantations was statistically significant (p < 0.05). Unless soil management changes strongly from current practice, it is appropriate for C footprint calculations to assume soil Cstock neutrality on mineral soils used for oil palm cultivation.
Oil palm agroforestry – Poster
A mixture of oil palm, perennial crops, annual crops and or livestock/fisheries, with oil palm population varying from 30-80% of the oil palm population in a monoculture system.
Oil palm agroforestry
A mixture of oil palm, perennial crops, annual crops and or livestock/fisheries, with oil palm population varying from 30-80% of the oil palm population in a monoculture system.
Scaling Jurisdictional Approaches in the Indonesian Palm Oil Sector
The Scaling Jurisdictional Approaches in the Indonesian Palm Oil Sector research project was aimed at enhancing the readiness of selected palm oil producing regions to implement jurisdictional programmes (JPs) for sustainable palm oil through a participatory, multistakeholder and gender-inclusive approach drawing on lessons learned from JPs carried out by CIFOR-ICRAF and other parties.