Lowering environmental costs of oil-palm expansion in Colombia

Garcia-Ulloa, John, Sloan, Sean, Pacheco, Pablo, Ghazoul, Jaboury, and Koh, Lian Pin (2012) Lowering environmental costs of oil-palm expansion in Colombia. Conservation Letters, 5 (5). pp. 366-375.

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Abstract

Colombia is the fifth largest producer of palm oil in the world. The country's government and oil-palm farmers association target a sixfold increase of crude palm-oil production by 2020. We model the impacts of expanding oilpalm agriculture in Colombia through a spatially explicit scenario analysis. We demonstrate that the impacts of oil-palm expansion (e.g., deforestation, conversion of natural savannahs) would be minimized by establishing new plantations on pasture lands, given the low environmental value and economic utility, and the high agricultural potential of this land use. Impacts of oil-palm expansion on beef and dairy production could be compensated by improving productivity of pasture lands elsewhere. However, the profitability of oil-palm production in these areas might suffer over the long term due to high land purchase costs.

Item ID: 24708
Item Type: Article (Research - C1)
ISSN: 1755-263X
Keywords: biomass carbon; conservation; land-use planning; scenario analysis; tropical deforestation
Date Deposited: 25 Jan 2013 05:41
FoR Codes: 07 AGRICULTURAL AND VETERINARY SCIENCES > 0701 Agriculture, Land and Farm Management > 070104 Agricultural Spatial Analysis and Modelling @ 60%
05 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES > 0502 Environmental Science and Management > 050206 Environmental Monitoring @ 40%
SEO Codes: 96 ENVIRONMENT > 9605 Ecosystem Assessment and Management > 960501 Ecosystem Assessment and Management at Regional or Larger Scales @ 75%
96 ENVIRONMENT > 9605 Ecosystem Assessment and Management > 960504 Ecosystem Assessment and Management of Farmland, Arable Cropland and Permanent Cropland Environments @ 25%
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