The world’s most traded vegetable oil is often associated with deforestation, destruction of orangutan and elephant habitat, and peatland fires. The Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil certification system aims to change that, but some producers – especially smallholders – are struggling to comply with increasingly strict rules in the sector.

CIFOR research shows that not all smallholders are alike. Using maps of the distribution of smallholder plantations, researchers identified six different types of small-scale oil palm producers – subsistence farmers, early adopters, migrant laborers, migrant farmers, entrepreneurs and local elites – and recommend that policies and programs aimed at encouraging compliance should take into account the importance of palm oil to a smallholder’s livelihood, not just plot size.

Another team of scientists has produced a powerful tool that may prevent development on protected areas due to incorrect maps. Using a scale of 1:50,000, large-scale ecological vegetation maps detail logged-over areas, peat swamps, oil palm estates and other land uses, and even indicate the likely depth of carbon-rich peat – a valuable asset for Indonesia’s climate emissions reduction targets. The Borneo Atlas reveals land cover change information associated with oil palm plantations and helps verify yearly operation and trends in provinces, districts and protected areas.

And CIFOR’s ongoing research and engagement with policy makers, the private sector and oil palm communities contributed to the formulation and implementation of the country’s national action plan for sustainable palm oil, as put forward in Presidential Decree No. 6/2019, and to the development of provincial and district regulations on sustainable plantation development and the protection of High Conservation Value (HCV) areas.