The conservation of tigers and other wildlife in oil palm plantations

importance of marginal or degraded habitats often found within palm oil concessions,
which can retain high conservation values. This has important implications for the
palm oil industry, both in guiding new planting and as a mechanism for reducing
impacts on local wildlife populations. It also has serious implications for large-scale
land-use planning, both by governments and conservationists, showing that
conservation value occurs widely outside primary forest and existing definitions and
criteria must be broadened to reflect this. Finally, the study concludes that the fragility
of wildlife survival in unprotected areas is such that active management and
protection is essential if conservation value is to be anything more than transient.
The report ends with recommendations for action to mitigate the impacts of oil palm
on wildlife survival at three levels. First, it is recommended that current policies on
avoiding forest clearance for new planting are supplemented with field surveys in
degraded areas to identify which are low priority and which are in fact integral to
wildlife conservation on a landscape scale. Second, recommendations are made on
how to best manage existing plantations, primarily through placement and
management of unplanted areas to reduce impacts on local wildlife populations. Third,
biodiversity offsets are suggested for oil palm plantations, as only with additional
action offsite can the entire impact of a plantation be mitigated. It is also recognised
that such actions need to be taken as part of a wider, collaborative landscape approach
if significant and sustainable impacts are to be achieved. The final section therefore
proposes a collaborative framework for conservation between protected areas on a
landscape scale, into which action by the oil palm industry must be fitted.
Conservation outside protected areas is essential if many wildlife populations and
endangered species are to survive into the future. The palm oil industry represents
one of the key land users in these areas with one of the largest environmental
‘footprints’. If palm oil production is carried out without regard for environmental
impacts it is also likely to be a key factor in the extinction of a range of tropical species.
But if production is developed responsibly, with environmental impacts mitigated as
far as possible, oil palm should be able to provide important economic growth and
development in the region without turning some of the earth’s most important tropical
ecosystems into ecological deserts. This is a big “if”, and achieving responsible
development is a major challenge; but it is one that must be met if biodiversity and
ecosystem functionality are to be conserved in Indonesia and elsewhere.
2 Wildlife conservation in oil palm plantations