Expansion of oil palm production in remote forest areas requires careful planning and evaluation if the communities are to benefit, according to a report by researchers at the University.
Expansion of oil palm production in remote forest areas requires careful planning and evaluation if the communities are to benefit, according to a report by researchers at the University.
Their findings show that unsustainable livelihoods, socioeconomic inequality and environmental issues remain major challenges in the oil palm industry. The research, entitled Does oil palm agriculture help alleviate poverty? A multidimensional counterfactual assessment of oil palm development in Indonesiais published in the journal World Development.
The researchers investigated the claim by palm oil producing countries that oil palm agriculture helps alleviate poverty, despite limited evidence about the contribution of this crop on villagers’ well-being.
The research was led by a multi-national team led Dr Truly Santika with Dr Matthew Struebig and Professor Erik Meijaard, from Kent’s Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE) along with colleagues in Indonesia, Australia and other countries. They examined the association between the development of oil palm plantations and change in objective measures of well-being between 2000 and 2014 across 6,600 villages in Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo.
Read more at University of Kent
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