Reconciling Human Welfare and the Environment – Ways for More
Sustainable Oil Palm Cultivation?
Infoslide: Design Landscapes for more Sustainable Oil Palm
Cultivation
Agroforestry does not replace intact forests, but can create buffer zones, or ecological corridors in the landscape. Koh et al.[38] propose establishing agroforestry zones in a so called design landscape (figure 24). It consists of HCV habitats, oil palm plantations and diverse agroforestry buffer zones (that might include oil palm) which are strategically placed within this landscape mosaic. Such an approach could help:
to mitigate ecological drawbacks of traditional oil palm management;
smallholders to be able to profit from the oil palm plantations socio-economically;
smallholders to benefit from several different forest products (such as fruit or latex), as well as the ecosystem services of agroforestries.
Additionally, the plantation road system could improve the market access for the smallholder agroforestry. Depending on the plant species used, smallholders could also profit from them (e.g., timber, latex). Thus, there is, for example, an interest of many smallholders for tree enrichment plantings[39]. However, currently more knowledge is needed regarding an “approved system with specific implication guidelines”, and on the socioeconomic as well as ecological advantages and disadvantages of an oil-palm-based agroforestry.
