Presentation delivered by Sophie Persey at ZSLs symposium "Sustainable palm oil: challenges, a common vision and the way forward"

1. Can Oil Palm & Biodiversity Co-exist?
Sophie Persey
Biodiversity & Oil Palm Project Manager
Zoological Society of London, Indonesia
Sophie.persey@zsl.org

2. Can oil palm & biodiversity co-exist?
No?

3. It has to….
Forested area suitable for oil palm cultivation
There is strong overlap
Area (,000 km2)
2,500
2,000
1,500 between land suitable for
1,000
500
0
oil palm cultivation &
r
il C ia u ia la ia ia G n n ar s o e a a r m es d
az DR es Pe r b ue ys liv PN roo bo m ao ng am a n ian a do na pin ilan
a a n L o in uy u u e t lli a
tropical forests
B , on o m z la o e
o d ol Ven Ma B m G My C ur G G c i i h
E V Ph T
ong In C C
a S ch
C en
Fr
Country Tropical land area suitable for oil palm
Reference: ‘Woods Hole Research Center (2007) Readiness for REDD: A preliminary global assessment of
tropical forested land suitability for agriculture’.

4. To what extent is this possible?
• Which species?
• At what spatial scale?
– Within an oil palm monoculture?
– Within an oil palm concession?
– Within a landscape dominated by oil palm?
• On what time scale?
• How can we influence this through
management?

5. Biodiversity value of oil palm monoculture
Reference: Foster et al In press

6. Biodiversity value of oil palm monoculture
‘Across all taxa, a mean of only 15% of species recorded in primary forest
were also found in oil palm plantations’
Reference: Fitzherbert et al (2008), TREE 23: 538-45.

7. How are different species affected?
• Medium to large mammals
– 10% regularly entered the oil palm monoculture (Maddox et al.
2007)
• Small mammals
– Forest primates, squirrels & tree shrews were absent in oil palm
(Danielsen et al 1995)
– Bat species richness was significantly lower in the oil palm
(Fukuda et al 2009)
• Birds
– Between 5 – 53% forest bird species were also present in oil palm
(Danielsen et al. 1995; Aratrakorn et al. 2006; Sheldon et al. 2010)
• Invertebrates
– Fewer beetle, ant & moth species in the oil palm plantations
(Chung et al. 2000, Chey 2006; Brühl et al. 2009; Fayle et al. In
press)
– Higher numbers of bee species (Liow et al. 2001)

8. Which species can survive in oil palm
monoculture?
WINNERS LOSERS
•Non-forest species •Forest species
•General habitat requirements •Specific habitat requirements
•Lower Conservation Concern •Higher Conservation Concern
•High Abundance •Absent or reduced abundance
•Eg. Pests, invasive species •Eg. Critically Endangered species

9. Can we make oil palm monoculture more
hospitable for biodiversity?
• Epiphytic birds nest ferns support similar
numbers pf ant species in oil palm and
primary forest, despite ant species richness
being much lower in the canopy (52% loss)
and leaf litter (74% loss).
– Could help to increase ant species
richness by 15%, but few forest species
– Increase insectivorous birds?
(Fayle et al 2010)
•Birds – epiphytic ferns & leguminous ground
cover
•Butterflies – weed cover
•Natural forest cover remaining had a bigger
influence over bird & butterfly diversity
(Koh et al 2008)

10. Biodiversity within oil palm concessions
• Concession area = 10,216 ha
• Mature oil palm
• Conservation area = 980 ha
• Approx 7km from a National Park
215 species, including 49 HCV species
120
HCV Species
100
Non-HCV Species
Number of Species
80
60
40
20
0
Birds Mammals Amphibians Reptiles
Taxon

11. Biodiversity value of forest fragments
Ecological theory predicts:
• Smaller, more isolated fragments = fewer species, smaller
populations
• A Single Large reserve will support more species than
Several Small (SLOSS)
Why?
Smaller fragments =
– Greater exposure to edge effects – reduce habitat quality
– Less habitat available, fewer niches
– Higher chance of local extinction due to random events
Isolated fragments =
– Lower chance of immigration to ‘rescue’ populations from
extinction

12. Effect of fragment area
•Species & genetic diversity decreased with fragment size
•Fragment size required to retain equivalent diversity to contiguous forest
= >650ha (all species), 2,500ha (forest specialists), 10,000ha (genetic)
(Struebig et al in press)
•Species richness & diversity, decreased with fragment size
•Genetic diversity of 1 butterfly species was not affected by fragment size
•Fragment size required to support island endemics = 4,000ha
•Some species were only recorded in the smaller fragments
(Bickel et al 2006, Bickel et al 2007)
•Small fragments (0.7ha – 8.7ha) supported fewer species & lower
abundances of birds than contiguous forest, particularly species of
conservation priority.
•Species composition in fragments more similar to oil palm than contiguous
forest. (Edwards et al 2010)

13. Effect of fragment isolation
• Does distance between
fragments predict diversity?
– Butterflies = reduced species &
genetic diversity
– Bats = no effect on species or
genetic diversity
• Depends on the ability of
different species to move
through the oil palm matrix
• Maintaining connectivity
could be critical to ability to
persist over the long term

14. The value of Large vs Small areas of habitat
Land sharing
Land sparing
Large Small
•Higher diversity & bigger •Contribute to landscape level
populations diversity
•No changes in species •Still support some HCV species
composition - supports HCV •Promote landscape level
species connectivity
•More resilient over time •Several small patches support
higher diversity than a single
large for some species

15. How can we ensure oil palm & biodiversity
can co-exist?
• Avoid the conversion &
fragmentation of large
contiguous areas of natural
habitat
• Retain key fragments of
habitat within the oil palm
matrix
• Increase habitat complexity of
oil palm crop

16. Why must oil palm & biodiversity co-exist?
"To keep every cog and wheel is
the first precaution of intelligent
tinkering.“
- Aldo Leopold