TY - JOUR

T1 - Promoting landscape heterogeneity to improve the biodiversity benefits of certified palm oil production

T2 - Evidence from Peninsular Malaysia

AU - Azhar, Badrul

AU - Saadun, Norzanalia

AU - Puan, Chong Leong

AU - Kamarudin, Norizah

AU - Aziz, Najjib

AU - Nurhidayu, Siti

AU - Fischer, Joern

N1 - Funding Information: We thank M.S. Yahya for assisting this research in the field and for providing computer technical support in data analysis. This study was not supported by any research grants, but authors used existing resources available from Universiti Putra Malaysia to conduct this research. Publisher Copyright: © 2015 The Authors.

PY - 2015/1/1

Y1 - 2015/1/1

N2 - The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) is responsible for the certification of palm oil producers that comply with sustainability standards. However, it is not known whether RSPO-certified plantations are effective in maintaining biodiversity. Focusing on Peninsular Malaysia, we show that both RSPO-certified plantations and uncertified large-scale plantations are characterized by very low levels of landscape heterogeneity. By contrast, heterogeneity measures were many times higher in palm oil producing smallholdings, despite their lack of RSPO certification. The low heterogeneity of large-scale oil palm plantations, including those certified by the RSPO, is likely to severely limit their value for biodiversity conservation. Uncertified smallholdings, in contrast, are much more heterogeneous and therefore hold substantially greater promise for the integration of palm oil production and biodiversity conservation than large-scale plantations. With oil palm agriculture further expanding, certification schemes should mandate producers to improve biodiversity conservation through landscape management that promotes greater landscape heterogeneity.

AB - The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) is responsible for the certification of palm oil producers that comply with sustainability standards. However, it is not known whether RSPO-certified plantations are effective in maintaining biodiversity. Focusing on Peninsular Malaysia, we show that both RSPO-certified plantations and uncertified large-scale plantations are characterized by very low levels of landscape heterogeneity. By contrast, heterogeneity measures were many times higher in palm oil producing smallholdings, despite their lack of RSPO certification. The low heterogeneity of large-scale oil palm plantations, including those certified by the RSPO, is likely to severely limit their value for biodiversity conservation. Uncertified smallholdings, in contrast, are much more heterogeneous and therefore hold substantially greater promise for the integration of palm oil production and biodiversity conservation than large-scale plantations. With oil palm agriculture further expanding, certification schemes should mandate producers to improve biodiversity conservation through landscape management that promotes greater landscape heterogeneity.

KW - Biodiversity

KW - Landscape heterogeneity

KW - Oil palm

KW - Plantations

KW - RSPO

KW - Smallholdings

KW - Sustainability Science

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84923633090&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.gecco.2015.02.009

DO - 10.1016/j.gecco.2015.02.009

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:84923633090

VL - 3

SP - 553

EP - 561

JO - Global Ecology and Conservation

JF - Global Ecology and Conservation

ER -