Biofuel expansion in southeast Asia: biodiversity impacts and policy guidelines

Abstract

Over the last few decades, oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) agriculture in Southeast Asia has created new opportunities for poverty alleviation and economic development. Conversely, this crop has also become a key driver of land use change in the region, with potentially dire consequences for biodiversity, human livelihoods, and the global climate. Studies suggest that oil palm growers could marginally increase the species richness of butterflies and birds on their plantations by changing management practices or by preserving remnant forest patches within their estates. However, the magnitude of these biodiversity enhancements is low relative to the biodiversity of undisturbed tropical forests. This suggests that little can be done to make oil palm plantations more hospitable to biodiversity. Unless future oil palm expansion is diverted to degraded lands, such as preexisting croplands or anthropogenic grasslands, rising global biofuel demand is likely to exacerbate the high rates of forest conversion and threats of extinction to species in major oil palm–producing countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia. This chapter reviews the biodiversity impacts of oil palm expansion in Southeast Asia and provides a number of policy recommendations that can help mitigate the negative biodiversity impacts of palm oil biodiesel production.