Fossil fuels supply most of the energy requirements of industrialized nations, yet the greenhouse gas emissions that result threaten to seriously affect natural systems through human-induced climate change, which compromises livelihoods, global security and biodiversity. Many countries have therefore set targets to reduce emissions. Many countries have also ratified international agreements for the mitigation of human impacts on natural systems through both climate change (Kyoto Protocol) and biodiversity loss (Convention on Biological Diversity).
Biofuels derived from agricultural commodities may reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and mitigate anthropogenic carbon emissions. Nevertheless, agricultural intensification and expansion are principal drivers of habitat modification, environmental change, and biodiversity loss. The demand for biofuel feedstock may drive agricultural expansion at the expense of native habitat and biodiversity.
Tropical forests contain more than half of the Earth’s terrestrial species. Forests in Southeast Asia are among the richest in species, but are also the most threatened. Tropical forests also store around 46% of the world’s living terrestrial carbon and 25% of total net global carbon emissions may stem from deforestation. There is therefore an inherent contradiction in any strategy to clear tropical forest to grow crops for so-called carbon-neutral fuels.
The oil palm is native to West Africa and has replaced soybean as the world’s most traded oilseed crop. Global production of palm oil has increased exponentially over the past 40 years. In 2006, 85% of the global palm-oil crop was produced in Indonesia (43%) and Malaysia (42%), countries whose combined annual tropical forest loss is around 2 million ha. It is perhaps unsurprising that the main charge levied by environmental groups against the oil-palm industry relates to its contribution to deforestation. Increasing global demand for biofuel could promote a rapid expansion of oil-palm plantations in forest on mineral soils and in peatlands, which cover 27.1 million ha in Southeast Asia. Despite the attention given to both the impact of oil-palm production on biodiversity and its potential as a biofuel feedstock, full appreciation of the environmental costs of biofuel palm oil is lacking. Oil-palm research in context: identifying the need for biodiversity assessment.
This paper assessed the impacts of replacing tropical forest with oil palm plantations on both carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and biodiversity. Despite the paucity of data available for such an analysis, the aim is to provide preliminary quantitative assessments with which to inform discussion of these issues and stimulate further research.

By: F. Danielsen, H. Beukema, N. D. Burgess, F. Parish, C. A. Bruehl et al.

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