Agriculture and Environment: Palm Oil

Environmental Impacts: Critical Habitat for Endangered Species

Of all the other agricultural commodities discussed on this website, oil palm poses the most significant threats to the widest range of endangered megafauna.

These include the Asian elephant, the Sumatran rhinoceros, and the tiger.

Where rare species still coexist
It is rare that these 3 very different species are found in one place, yet they coexist in peninsular Malaysia and Sumatra in precisely those areas where oil palm plantations are expanding. In addition the orangutan, tapir, sun bear, and other primate and bird species are affected by the expansion of oil palm plantations in tropical forests.

With all these species, the primary issues are the incompatible conversion and use of the habitat and the elimination of wildlife corridors between areas of genetic diversity. Rhinoceros and tigers will not be found in the types of disturbed areas that are created in oil palm plantations.

Elephants - Not the ones to give up!
Elephants are a slightly different story. While elephants are affected by forest clearing, they are willing to inhabit disturbed areas and even oil palm plantations. As a consequence, they are considered a nuisance by plantation managers.

Elephants like to eat the tender new shoots on oil palms as well as the oil-rich palm seeds if they can get to them. Thus, they not only "eat the profits" but also damage the trees doing it.

In some areas elephants have destroyed 20% or more of plantations as large as 5,000 hectares. As a consequence, in areas of known elephant populations deep trenches are dug surrounding entire plantations to prevent elephants from entering the farms and destroying the crops.

To be effective, these have to be maintained regularly. In other cases elephants are fenced out with electric fences and barbed wire. Still, elephants often find ways into the plantations. In many instances they walk up unprotected rivers and streams. The conflicts are not always benign, either for the elephants or the workers. In at least one instance, an elephant killed a plantation manager. It is not known how many elephants have been killed over conflicts in oil palm plantations.