The conservation of tigers and other wildlife in oil palm plantations

equires the calculation of this residual impact, and paying to offset it elsewhere. Oil
palm plantations have a similar problem. Like a mine, the environmental footprint of the
oil palm crop can only be reduced by a limited amount using the mitigation measures
described above. The residual impact of even the best-run oil palm plantation will still
be significant. Companies that are serious about negating the residual impact need to
consider offsetting it by protecting land of an appropriate area offsite.
Frameworks for action
It is essential that changes within the oil palm industry are coordinated, both within
the industry itself and with other land-use planning in the region. For wildlife
conservation, this is important because most of the issues of concern are landscapelevel
issues. Action at isolated sites may benefit individual companies in terms of
reputation and even local ecosystem health, but for most species and for overall
ecosystem services, local action will be insufficient. Few plantations will ever provide
valuable habitats in their own right – their key role is in coordinating to reduce the
collective impact on species, therefore changes have to be applied at a coordinated,
landscape level. Such coordination will also directly benefit the industry. Conservation
suffers from the ‘tragedy of the commons’ – when the resources are shared by all, no
single person or organisation is willing to be the only one to make sacrifices for the
greater good. Local environmental degradation may be harmful for a plantation, but if
the benefits that are obtained from action don’t outweigh the costs involved, most
businesses do not act. Coordination and collaboration, ensuring that sacrifices are
shared and even, is the only way large scale action is possible. Furthermore, it is
important that action taken is universally recognised and rewarded. Companies are
not going to be willing make sacrifices for conservation if one sets aside 30% of its
concession for conservation whilst another leaves the legal minimum yet both claim
equal credit. Nor are they going to act if the range of available options presented are
contradictory and unfocused. Coordination, as well as further research, is required to
define such issues as what does set-aside mean, what are the criteria for responsible
planting, and what is meant by a wildlife corridor.
Fortunately such frameworks already exist. The Round Table for Sustainable Palm Oil
(RSPO, see box 1, p.50) brings together the palm oil industry and non governmental
organisations and is attempting to define how palm oil can be produced with
minimum negative environmental and social impact, which in turn is intended to allow
access to premium prices on foreign markets. Several of the RSPO Principles and
Criteria (P&C) relate directly to wildlife conservation, in particular 5.1 (identifying and
mitigating environmental impacts including vegetation clearance and new planting)
and 5.2 (identifying endangered species affected by the plantation and taking steps to
conserve them, including impacts on neighbouring populations and species and
habitats within the concession). It is strongly recommended that all conservation
findings and advice on palm oil production are channelled through the RSPO and it is
hoped that these findings can contribute specifically to the wildlife commitments
within the P&C. However, there remains a need for research to be better represented
within the RSPO, providing the information required to take the steps towards more
sustainable palm oil.
Secondly, the HCVF framework exists as a concept for valuing land in terms of
conservation (see Figure 30). Whilst designed as a forest management tool rather than
a way of identifying conservation values across the landscape, the HCVF approach has
important features that make it a strong candidate for adaptation to wider
conservation value assessments. Firstly it is a universal system that can be applied in
theory anywhere in the world. Secondly, it is already an established, tested and
recognised method, albeit not beyond the forestry sector. Thirdly and crucially, it has
already been recognised by the RSPO as the tool for identifying where oil palm can
and cannot be planted. The HCVF framework is therefore by far the strongest
contender for developing the tool that can assess landscapes for palm oil
development suitability, as long as it can be adapted to also recognise the key
marginal habitats and not just forests.
Wildlife conservation in oil palm plantations 51