Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of In Re: News Item titled "Are missing palm trees causing more lighting deaths in Bihar appearing in ‘The Times of India’ dated 29.05.2025". The original application was registered suo-motu based on the news item titled "Are missing palm trees causing …
Crop yields are projected to decrease under future climate conditions, and recent research suggests that yields have already been impacted. However, current impacts on a diversity of crops subnationally and implications for food security remains unclear. Here, we constructed linear regression relationships using weather and reported crop data to assess …
The tropics have suffered substantial forest loss, and elevated deforestation rates have been closely linked to large-scale land acquisitions(LSLA). Having a timely and accurate understanding of global LSLA pattern will be critically important for concluding related policies and actions. Here, we investigate global LSLA networks and find that land acquisitions …
The situation analysis primarily focuses on oil palm in the context of biodiversity conservation based on literature published before 31 January 2018, and aims to provide a constructive pathway to addressing sustainability challenges in the palm oil industry. This report does not assess the social and economic implications of palm …
Oil palm plantations in Malaysian Borneo host a lower number of frog species than forests in same area. However, the plantations exhibit an edge effect that extends as far as 4 kilometers, resulting in a decline in the diversity of frog species in adjacent forests. The researchers suggest that for …
Rapid integration of global agricultural markets and subsequent cropland displacement in recent decades increased large-scale tropical deforestation in South America and Southeast Asia. Growing land scarcity and more stringent land use regulations in these regions could incentivize the offshoring of export-oriented commodity crops to sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). We assess the …
Palm oil is the most widely traded vegetable oil globally, with demand projected to increase substantially in the future. Almost all oil palm grows in areas that were once tropical moist forests, some of them quite recently. The conversion to date, and future expansion, threatens biodiversity and increases greenhouse gas …
The roles of forest and wetland ecosystems in regulating flooding have drawn increasing attention in the contexts of climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction. However, data on floods are scarce in many of the countries where people are most exposed and vulnerable to their impacts. Here, our separate analyses …
Indonesia’s goals of national greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction and biofuel production could be pursued synergistically through the promotion of more sustainable palm oil and biofuel production practices. One strategy to produce low-carbon renewable energy is to create advanced biofuel from unused palm residues. Biofuel made from palm fronds, trunks, …
The recent episode of an oppressive smog that blanketed Southeast Asia highlights an entirely new kind of problem in contemporary international relations, namely, the complexity of transnational governance when traditional remedies--from bombs and missiles at one extreme, to diplomatic démarches and summits on the more polite end--are of no use …
Plantation-associated drainage of Southeast Asian peatlands has accelerated in recent years. Draining exposes the upper peat layer to oxygen, leading to elevated decomposition rates and net soil carbon losses. Empirical studies indicate positive relationships between long-term water table (WT) depth and soil carbon loss rate in peatlands. These correlations potentially …
There is an increasing focus on the role that public and private resources can play in supporting activities that reduce forest loss as part of wider efforts to address climate change, and ensure sustainable development. This report highlights the role that subsidies play in shaping the investment climate in a …
Solutions to meet growing food requirements in a world of limited suitable land and degrading environment focus mainly on increasing crop yields, particularly in poorly performing regions, and reducing animal product consumption. Increasing yields could alleviate land requirements, but imposing higher soil nutrient withdrawals and in most cases larger fertilizer …
Tropical deforestation from developing countries, including Indonesia, contributes to emissions of greenhouse gases, principally carbon dioxide, the primary driver of global warming. Primary forest clearing also results in the loss of biodiversity due to the destruction of unique tropical forest habitats. Present understanding of forest change within Indonesia lacks consensus. …
The increasing demand for agricultural products and the uncertainty of international food markets has recently drawn the attention of governments and agribusiness firms toward investments in productive agricultural land, mostly in the developing world. The targeted countries are typically located in regions that have remained only marginally utilized because of …
The geographic distribution of Bornean orang-utans and its overlap with existing land-use categories (protected areas, logging and plantation concessions) is a necessary foundation to prioritize conservation planning. Based on an extensive orang-utan survey dataset and a number of environmental variables, we modelled an orang-utan distribution map. The modelled orang-utan distribution …
Development aggression through state, public-private partnerships and corporate projects – large dams, mines, logging, plantations, national parks... and the like – are displacing millions of indigenous peoples from their lands and territories... their traditional sources of subsistence, distinct cultures and ways of life. Indigenous peoples in their resource-rich lands are …
Industrial agricultural plantations are a rapidly increasing yet largely unmeasured source of tropical land cover change. Here, we evaluate impacts of oil palm plantation development on land cover, carbon flux, and agrarian community lands in West Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo. With a spatially explicit land change/carbon bookkeeping model, parameterized using high-resolution …
The carrying capacity of Indian agriculture to support oilseeds production to meet the vegetable oil needs of the Indian population has been considered in the context of available sources of oil from oilseed and nonoilseed origins. India needs to produce 17.84 Mt of vegetable oils to meet the nutritional fat …
The upcoming global mechanism for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries should include and prioritize tropical peatlands. Forested tropical peatlands in Southeast Asia are rapidly being converted into production systems by introducing perennial crops for lucrative agribusiness, such as oil-palm and pulpwood plantations, causing large greenhouse …
