scholarly journals Bat Assemblage in an Oil Palm Plantation from the Colombian Llanos Foothills

2021 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-60
Author(s):  
María Alejandra Cely-Gómez ◽  
◽  
Dennis Castillo-Figueroa ◽  
Jairo Pérez-Torres ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Oil Palm ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Secondary Forest ◽  
Spillover Effect ◽  
Agricultural Landscapes ◽  
Stepping Stones ◽  
Generalist Species ◽  
Risk Of Predation ◽  
The Impact

The surge of oil palm production in the Neotropics has become a major concern about the potential impacts on biodiversity. In the Colombian Orinoquia, which has shown a massive landscape transformation due to the growth of oil palm plantations, the effects of oil palm agriculture on bats in this region have not been studied up to date. To understand the impact of habitat conversion on bat diversity, we characterised bat assemblages in secondary forest and palm plantations in the Colombian Piedmont foothills (Meta, Colombia). We captured 393 individuals (forest = 81, plantation = 312) of 18 species and three families. The forest cover presented three exclusive species while the plantation had five. Species diversity (q1) and evenness (J’) were higher in the forest compared to the plantation. These differences derived from the increase in abundances of generalist species (Artibeus sp., Carollia spp.) in the plantation. Despite the habitat simplification caused by oil palm plantations, this monoculture provides a cover that is used by some bats, decreasing their risk of predation and allowing movement between patches of forest habitat as stepping-stones. Maintaining forest cover in agricultural landscapes favours diversity by generating a “spillover effect” of the forest towards plantations, which in the case of some bats contributes to the reduction of species isolation and the maintenance of ecosystem services provided by them. It is important to improve management practices of oil palm plantations to minimise negative impacts on biodiversity, considering the expansion of this productive system and the scarcity of protected areas in this region.

scholarly journals Effect of oil palm sustainability certification on deforestation and fire in Indonesia

2017 ◽  
Vol 115 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimberly M. Carlson ◽  
Robert Heilmayr ◽  
Holly K. Gibbs ◽  
Praveen Noojipady ◽  
David N. Burns ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Palm Oil ◽  
Oil Palm ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Fire Detection ◽  
Tree Cover ◽  
Forest Loss ◽  
Detection Rates ◽  
Active Fire ◽  
Routine Monitoring ◽  
The Impact

Many major corporations and countries have made commitments to purchase or produce only “sustainable” palm oil, a commodity responsible for substantial tropical forest loss. Sustainability certification is the tool most used to fulfill these procurement policies, and around 20% of global palm oil production was certified by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) in 2017. However, the effect of certification on deforestation in oil palm plantations remains unclear. Here, we use a comprehensive dataset of RSPO-certified and noncertified oil palm plantations (∼188,000 km2) in Indonesia, the leading producer of palm oil, as well as annual remotely sensed metrics of tree cover loss and fire occurrence, to evaluate the impact of certification on deforestation and fire from 2001 to 2015. While forest loss and fire continued after RSPO certification, certified palm oil was associated with reduced deforestation. Certification lowered deforestation by 33% from a counterfactual of 9.8 to 6.6% y−1. Nevertheless, most plantations contained little residual forest when they received certification. As a result, by 2015, certified areas held less than 1% of forests remaining within Indonesian oil palm plantations. Moreover, certification had no causal impact on forest loss in peatlands or active fire detection rates. Broader adoption of certification in forested regions, strict requirements to avoid all peat, and routine monitoring of clearly defined forest cover loss in certified and RSPO member-held plantations appear necessary if the RSPO is to yield conservation and climate benefits from reductions in tropical deforestation.

scholarly journals The critical role of natural forest as refugium for generalist species in oil palm-dominated landscapes

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (10) ◽  
pp. e0257814
Author(s):  
Sergio Guerrero-Sanchez ◽  
Benoit Goossens ◽  
Silvester Saimin ◽  
Pablo Orozco-terWengel
Keyword(s):  
Oil Palm ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
The Body ◽  
Conservation Strategy ◽  
Buffer Zones ◽  
Generalist Species ◽  
Monitor Lizard ◽  
Varanus Salvator ◽  
Forested Areas ◽  
The Impact

In Borneo, oil palm plantations have replaced much of natural resources, where generalist species tend to be the principal beneficiaries, due to the abundant food provided by oil palm plantations. Here, we analyse the distribution of the Asian water monitor lizard (Varanus salvator) population within an oil palm-dominated landscape in the Kinabatangan floodplain, Malaysian Borneo. By using mark-recapture methods we estimated its population size, survival, and growth in forest and plantation habitats. We compared body measurements (i.e. body weight and body length) of individuals living in forest and oil palm habitats as proxy for the population’s health status, and used general least squares estimation models to evaluate its response to highly fragmented landscapes in the absence of intensive hunting pressures. Contrary to previous studies, the abundance of lizards was higher in the forest than in oil palm plantations. Recruitment rates were also higher in the forest, suggesting that these areas may function as a source of new individuals into the landscape. While there were no morphometric differences among plantation sites, we found significant differences among forested areas, where larger lizards were found inhabiting forest adjacent to oil palm plantations. Although abundant in food resources, the limited availability of refugia in oil palm plantations may intensify intra-specific encounters and competition, altering the body size distribution in plantation populations, contrary to what happens in the forest. We conclude that large patches of forest, around and within oil palm plantations, are essential for the dynamics of the monitor lizard population in the Kinabatangan floodplain, as well as a potential source of individuals to the landscape. We recommend assessing this effect in other generalist species, as well as the impact on the prey communities, especially to reinforce the establishment of buffer zones and corridors as a conservation strategy within plantations.

scholarly journals Predicting effects of plantation expansion on streamflow regime for catchments in Australia

2012 ◽  
Vol 16 (7) ◽  
pp. 2109-2121 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Zhang ◽  
F. F. Zhao ◽  
A. E. Brown
Keyword(s):  
Management Practices ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Low Flow ◽  
Daily Streamflow ◽  
Streamflow Regime ◽  
Flow Duration Curves ◽  
Pre Treatment ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Zero Flow

Abstract. The effect of plantations on mean annual streamflow is well understood and, there are robust methods available for assessing the impact. Plantations also affect streamflow regime, leading to reductions in low flow and increased number of zero-flow days. Understanding changes in streamflow regime following plantation expansion is important for developing water resources and environmental flow strategy. This study evaluated the impacts of plantations on streamflow regime from 15 catchments in Australia. The selected catchments range in size from 0.6 to 1136 km2 and represent different climatic conditions and management practices. The catchments have at least 20 yr and in most cases 35 yr of continuous daily streamflow data and well documented plantation records. Catchments with perennial streamflow in the pre-treatment periods showed relatively uniform reductions in most flows after plantation expansions, whereas catchments with ephemeral streamflow showed more dramatic reductions in low flows, leading to an increased number of zero-flow days. The Forest Cover Flow Change (FCFC) model was tested using the data from the selected catchments and comparison of predicted and observed flow duration curves showed that 14 of the 15 catchments have coefficients of efficiency greater than 0.8. The results indicate that the model is capable of predicting plantation impacts on streamflow regime.

Forest Management, Farmers' Practices and Biodiversity Conservation in the Monogaga Protected Coastal Forest in Southwest Côte D'ivoire

Africa ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 77 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Y. Adou Yao ◽  
Barnard Roussel
Keyword(s):  
Management Practices ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Local Population ◽  
Agricultural Practices ◽  
Iucn Red List ◽  
Coastal Forest ◽  
Species List ◽  
Conservation Area ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Impact

AbstractThe emergence of biodiversity standards in the nature conservation literature requires that we consider the interactions between conservation and local practices from a new angle. The coastal forest of Monogaga, a protected area inhabited by a local population, is an ideal terrain for comparing the impact of local agricultural practices and the activities of Sodefor, the government agency charged with the management of this conservation area. The discourses and uses of forest resources of these two actors allow us to compare the biodiversity of forest cover categories recognized by peasant farmers and Sodefor, using the standard statistical methods for measuring biodiversity (the Shannon and Weaver index, species richness, number of special status species).For Sodefor, it is the most dense forest ecosystems (the ‘black forests’ ) and the lands that they occupy that constitute the area's natural heritage. The agency believes that these forests must be protected from all human uses, especially farming, if the forest is to be transmitted to future generations. In contrast, Wanne farmers view the old forests (kporo) as long-term fallows (teteklwoa) or reserves of fertile land that will be cleared when there is a need for more farmland in the future. For them, patrimony is constituted by the intergenerational transmission of a bundle of resource access and farming rights within lineages.With regard to biodiversity, a comparison of the two types of resource management practices (Sodefor and farmer) gives nuanced results. The farmers' areas are more diverse than those of Sodefor when considering the Aké Assi threatened species list. For the Sassandrian species list, both management types maintained the same quantity of species. For endemics and the IUCN red list species, the spatial units controlled by Sodefor show more diversity.

scholarly journals The Impact of Strategic Human Resource Management Practices on Productivity: The Case of the Malaysian Oil Palm Industry

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Aminu Bawa ◽  
Muhamad Jantan ◽  
Juhary Ali
Keyword(s):  
Resource Management ◽  
Human Resource Management ◽  
Organizational Performance ◽  
Human Resource ◽  
Oil Palm ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Strategic Human Resource Management ◽  
Theoretical Research ◽  
The Impact

A substantial body of evidence in management theory and business practice has accumulated to show that Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) is associated with improved organizational performance. In spite of this evidence, empirical studies have shown that some organizations are slow in implementing those practices. One of the fundamental reasons behind this is the fact that as a body of practical knowledge, SHRM has seemingly lacked any theoretical research framework to underpin it. Thus, this paper is an attempt to address this problem by (1) contributing to theory building in strategic HRM, and (2) empirically testing the hypothesis that SHRM practices affect productivity. This study used a sample of 129 managers of oil palm estates from a national survey of estate managers reflecting the 1998 financial year Using linear regression techniques, the results suggest that (1) estates implement less strategic HI? practices than anticipated, and (2) some strategic HR practices were related to productivity. Managerial implications of the study were discussed.  

scholarly journals How does COVID-19 Impact Oil Palm Management Practices in Indonesia?

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 56-67
Author(s):  
Ratnawati Nurkhoiry ◽  
Sachnaz Desta Oktarina
Keyword(s):  
Oil Palm ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Selling Price ◽  
Fresh Fruit Bunch ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Harvesting Process ◽  
Turn Over ◽  
Business As Usual ◽  
The Impact

Disrupted economy due to COVID-19 pandemic has been spilled to multifaceted sectors. Agriculture, more specifically oil palm sector was also hit by the impact of the catastrophe. This study is aimed to decipher the effect of COVID-19 pandemic to the management of oil palm plantation. The pandemic has caused the mobility and morbidity of people in such a way that exacerbated distribution of input factor, harvesting process, and transporting activities. Through online survey to 59 farmers consist of smallholder, government, and private estates, the study indicated that there was salient change of limiting activities particularly during immature and mature stages. Hence, the production of fresh fruit bunch (FFB) also decreased by 15% compared to business as usual as measured on monthly bases. Although the magnitude of production change was not statistically significance, planters still suffered from declining FFB farm gate price. On average, they received 5% lower selling price of FFB as a consequence of contracted CPO demand from prominent importing countries such as China, India, and Italy. The lower selling farm gate price has caused the income shocks to the farmers. Thus, quite large number of them experienced either turn-over or cost efficiency at the expense of fertilizer input. It is perpetuating the vicious cycle of lower smallholder attainable FFB yield. For a group that is at the high risk of infections as well, this circumstances has bring about concerns to Indonesian palm oil development, especially in terms of replanting realization and biodiesel blending progress in the long run

scholarly journals Review of Lessons Learned in Changing Agricultural Landscapes in Ethiopia: What Worked Well and What Didn’t Work so Well?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amare Haileslassie ◽  
Wolde Mekuria ◽  
Petra schmitter ◽  
Stefan Uhlenbrook ◽  
Eva Ludi
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Agricultural Landscape ◽  
Economic Benefits ◽  
Agricultural Landscapes ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Management Interventions ◽  
Land And Water Management ◽  
The Impact

Ethiopia has decades of experience in implementing land and water management interventions. Nonetheless, there remains persisting challenges to follow an adaptive management (AM) approach in efforts of restoring and transforming agricultural landscapes. This review was carried out to synthesize evidences on the impact on agricultural landscapes following the implementation of land and water management practices and to evaluate the use of AM approaches. We explored how elements of the structures and functions of landscapes have been transformed, and how the components of AM, such as structured decision-making and learning processes, have been applied. Despite numerous environmental and economic benefits of land and water management interventions in Ethiopia, this review revealed gaps in AM approaches. These include: (i) insufficient efforts in relation to evidence based contextualization of interventions, (ii) insufficient efforts in monitoring of bio-physical and socio-economic processes and changes post implementation, (iii) lack of trade-off analyses, and (iv) inadequacy of local community engagement and provision of feedback. Given the many uncertainties we must deal with, efforts to restore and transform agricultural landscapes cannot follow a business-as-usual approach. Future investment, in AM approach, tailored to the needs and context would help to achieve the goals of sustainable agricultural landscape transformation. The success depends on three interdependent pillars of action: the ability to make a robust, co-developed plan of interventions, the ability to continuously monitor changes based on key variables, and to learn from the knowledge generated and apply the learning as implementation evolves.

scholarly journals Community forestry and livelihood linkages: A case of Kamalamai community forest, Dolakha, Nepal

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 31-37
Author(s):  
Saroj Adhikari ◽  
Man Kumar Dhamala
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
International Development ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Forest Products ◽  
Physical Capital ◽  
Sustainable Livelihood ◽  
Community Forest ◽  
Scoring Method ◽  
The Impact

As a result of institutional failure of the nationalization of forest in 1957 A.D., a newer concept of participatory forest management was introduced in Nepal and local people got their space created in forest management during 1970s with a view to mitigating forest cover loss. Under this scheme Kamalmai Community Forest (129.59 hectares) located in Laduk VDC of Dolakha District was handed over to the community in 2000 A.D. The present study was conducted during February, 2014 to assess the status of forest management strategies and impact on livelihood of forest dependent people. Management aspect of the forest was assessed based on field observation, Key Informant Interview and Focus Group Discussion, whereas judgmental scoring method was used to assess the impact on livelihood; the questionnaire for which was prepared on the basis of Sustainable Livelihood Framework Guidance Sheet developed by Department for International Development (DFID), 1999. All the forest management practices including control of composition and structure of growing stock, and harvesting and distribution of forest products were strictly implemented. The total average scores for human, physical, social, financial and natural capitals, which were used to assess the livelihood, were found to be 2.5862, 1.4310, 2.5689, 0.2068 and 2.6896 respectively. The result illustrated that the forest under study had contributed to enhance the condition of human, social and natural capitals. The contribution was noticeable in terms of physical capital, but financial capital was not found satisfactory. Since the handover, there has been a notable change in greenery and landscape as well as on livelihood of forest dependent people.

scholarly journals Designing oil palm landscapes to retain biodiversity using insights from a key ecological indicator group

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia L. Gray ◽  
Eleanor M. Slade ◽  
Darren J. Mann ◽  
Owen T. Lewis
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Oil Palm ◽  
Forest Restoration ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Dung Beetle ◽  
Ecological Indicator ◽  
Species Richness And Diversity ◽  
Functional Richness ◽  
Logged Forest ◽  
The Impact

ABSTRACTOil palm expansion threatens biodiverse ecosystems across the tropics. However, palm oil is a widely used and profitable crop, so identifying strategies that mitigate the impact of oil palm expansion on biodiversity is important. Riparian reserves (strips of forest along rivers) are protected in many countries for hydrological reasons and also support species that would not otherwise persist in oil palm. However, management guidelines for riparian zones have been informed by relatively few ecological studies. We assessed how the structural features and landscape context of riparian reserves in Sabah, Malaysia affected dung beetle communities. We also tested the use of flight intercept traps to study movement of dung beetles along linear forest corridors. Overall, dung beetle abundance in riparian reserves was 54% lower than in logged forest areas, but all species observed in the logged forest were found in at least one riparian reserve site and both species richness and diversity increased with reserve width. Distance from a large block of continuous forest affected dung beetle community composition but not species richness, abundance, or functional diversity. The amount of forest cover in the surrounding landscape improved the retention of species within riparian reserves, and increases in vegetation complexity corresponded with higher functional richness and functional dispersion. The flight intercept traps did not indicate that there is net movement of individuals out of logged forest areas into the riparian reserves. The species richness of 30 m reserves (the suggested requirement of reserves in Sabah) was only 10% lower than in logged forest, but our data indicate that riparian reserves of at least 50 – 80 m are needed for species richness and diversity to equal that in nearby logged forest. These findings, particularly if they apply more widely to forest-dependent taxa, should be taken into account when setting policy and sustainability guidelines for oil palm plantations, both in areas undergoing conversion from forest and in existing oil palm plantations where forest restoration is required.

scholarly journals Changing Agricultural Landscapes in Ethiopia: Examining Application of Adaptive Management Approach

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (21) ◽  
pp. 8939
Author(s):  
Amare Haileslassie ◽  
Wolde Mekuria ◽  
Petra Schmitter ◽  
Stefan Uhlenbrook ◽  
Eva Ludi
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Adaptive Management ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Economic Benefits ◽  
Agricultural Landscapes ◽  
Management Approach ◽  
Management Interventions ◽  
Land And Water Management ◽  
The Impact

Ethiopia has decades of experience in implementing land and water management interventions. The overarching objectives of this review were to synthesize evidences on the impact of implementation of land and water management practices on agricultural landscapes in Ethiopia and to evaluate the use of adaptive management (AM) approaches as a tool to manage uncertainties. We explored how elements of the structures and functions of landscapes have been transformed, and how the components of AM, such as structured decision-making and learning processes, have been applied. Despite numerous environmental and economic benefits of land and water management interventions in Ethiopia, this review revealed gaps in AM approaches. These include: (i) inadequate evidence-based contextualization of interventions, (ii) lack of monitoring of bio-physical and socioeconomic processes and changes post implementation, (iii) lack of trade-off analyses, and (iv) inadequacy of local community engagement and provision of feedback. Given the many uncertainties we must deal with, future investment in AM approaches tailored to the needs and context would help to achieve the goals of sustainable agricultural landscape transformation. The success depends, among other things, on the ability to learn from the knowledge generated and apply the learning as implementation evolves

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