Palm Oil Not the Only Driver of Forest Loss in Indonesia

February 1, 2019
Contact: Tim Lucas (919) 613-8084, tdlucas@duke.edu

Aerial images show deforestation in Indonesia caused by (1) large-scale oil palm plantations; (2) timber plantations; and (3) mining.
(Credits: 1) CNES/Airbus; 2) DigitalGlobe; 3) CNES/Airbus.)

Note: Kemen Austin is available for additional comment at kaustin@rti.org or (919) 433-6837.

DURHAM, N.C. -- Large-scale agriculture, primarily for growing oil palms, remains a major cause of deforestation in Indonesia, but its impact has diminished proportionately in recent years as other natural and human causes emerge, a new Duke University study finds.

“In the late 2000s, large-scale plantations were responsible for more than half of Indonesia’s loss of primary natural forests,” said Kemen G. Austin, a 2018 doctoral graduate of Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment, who led the study. “This trend peaked from 2008 to 2010, when an average of 600,000 hectares of forest was lost annually—57 percent of it driven by the expansion of these massive farms

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“The takeaway message for policymakers and conservationists is that the causes of forest loss in Indonesia are much more varied than we previously thought. They change from place to place and over time,” Austin said. “Even though oil palm is the first thing that pops into most people’s head when they think about deforestation in Indonesia, it’s not the only cause, and we need to adjust our policies and practices to account for that.”

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“Using 15 years of high-spatial-resolution Google Earth imagery and newly available global datasets on forest loss let us zero in on the causes of deforestation at each location and see how they vary from place to place and over time,” Austin said. “For instance, logging is still driving deforestation on the island of Papua, but on Sumatra and Kalimantan, it’s the oil palm industry and El Niño-driven fires that are the primary drivers.”

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