Supporting smallholder oil palm farmer networks towards higher biodiversity systems

Supervisor: Edgar Turner

Project Summary:

Oil palm is currently cultivated across >19 million hectares around the tropics, with area projected to increase still further in the future. This expansion has been linked to widescale negative impacts on the environment and biodiversity, but the industry is also of critical importance for both local and national economies of producing countries. An estimated 40% of palm oil production is from smallholder farmers (typically less than 50 hectares in area), but management in these systems can be highly variable, making it hard to implement more-sustainable management practices in these systems. 

Benefitting from a long-term partnership between the Insect Ecology Group in Cambridge, and Wild Asia (a Malaysia-based social enterprise dedicated to nature-positive agriculture and inclusive supply chains; https://wildasia.org/), this project will assess the environmental, biodiversity, ecosystem function and yield impacts of the Wild Asia Group Scheme (WAGS) and associated WAGS BIO scheme in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. Working with a network of farmers, the student will develop environmental and biodiversity monitoring protocols that can be implemented across smallholder farms to assess the impact of alternative management approaches. The project will also monitor the uptake and implementation of the scheme across a wider smallholder network.

Type of Work:

The student will collect data on biodiversity and functioning across smallholder farms in Sabah and Johor, including supporting smallholders to collect data themselves. Fieldwork will be carried out in collaboration with Wild Asia staff who have existing long-term relationships with smallholder participants in the WAGS Scheme. The student will also support the development of showcase farms in the region, to demonstrate more-sustainable management approaches to a wider network of farmers.

Importance of the area of research concerned:

Findings will contribute to the development of more-sustainable management practices in oil palm plantations by informing management, particularly related to smallholder farmers.

References:

Reiss-Woolever VJ, Wakhid D, Ikhsan M, Caliman J-P, Naim M, Azmi EN, Shufiyan S, Howes J, Azmi R, Lim YY, Jan SZA, Barrock I, Azhar B, Drewer J, Ward C, Jones JA, Luke SH, Turner EC, Hidayat P, Buchori D. (2025) Private, non-profit, and plantation: Oil palm smallholders in management-assistance programs vary in socio-demographics, attitudes, and management practices PLoS ONE 20(1):e0304837-e0304837 Meijaard E, Brooks TM, Carlson KM, Slade EM, Garcia-Ulloa J, Gaveau DLA, Lee JSH, Santika T, Juffe-Bignoli D, Struebig MJ, Wich SA, Ancrenaz M, Koh LP, Zamira N, Abrams JF, Prins HHT, Sendashonga CN, Murdiyarso D, Furumo PR, Macfarlane N, Hoffmann R, Persio M, Descals A, Szantoi Z, Sheil D. The environmental impacts of palm oil in context (2020). Nat Plants 6(12):1418-1426. doi: 10.1038/s41477-020-00813-w