Balancing the Need for Sustainable Oil Palm Development and Conservation : The Lower Kinabatangan Floodplains Experience

Abstract

Since the commencement of large scale planting of oil palm, Malaysia has experienced rapid growth of the industry in terms of planted area and production. In year 2000, the country produced 10.84million tonnes of crude palm oil (CPO) from a total planted area of about 3.376 million ha. As the national average production has been projected to exceed 15 million tonnes for the period 2016-2020, continued expansion in planted area can be expected. Since most of the suitable agricultural land have already been utilised, new areas for expansion are likely to be in less ideal environments such as steep terrain, shallow soils and deep peat which would be very challenging within the context of sustainable development. There is concern that oil palm planting could result in the clearing of many remaining lowland forests, many of which are considered important for conservation. A case in point is the Lower Kinabatangan floodplains in Sabah where most of the logged over forest areas have been replaced by oil palm. While oil palm cultivation has brought economic prosperity to the region, it is necessary to balance development with the need to preserve the unique ecosystem of the floodplains, bearing