However, because oil palm cultivation is centred on some of the most biodiverse and carbon-rich habitats on earth – Malaysia and Indonesia account for more than 80% of worldwide production – the expansion of the crop has come with significant environmental costs. These include declines in forest cover, reductions in biodiversity, the release of carbon stored in forest biomass and soil, changes in soil communities, increases in soil erosion, and downstream impacts on water quality.

Finding ways to grow oil palm more sustainably, preserve ecosystems and keep carbon in the ground and organic matter is, therefore, a key challenge. Large areas of oil palm that were planted during a period of rapid expansion in the 1990s are reaching the end of their productive life and being replanted. So there is the opportunity to alter the planting and management regimes across many plantations.

Funding from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation will enable scientists at the University of Cambridge to embark on a new project with partners in Indonesia to identify best practices for restoring landscapes, focussing on riverside areas around oil palm crops. Led by Dr Ed Turner (Department of Zoology), Professor Andrew Balmford (Professor of Conservation Science in the Department of Zoology) and Professor David Coomes (Director of the University of Cambridge Conservation Research Institute and Head of the Forest Ecology and Conservation Group in the Department of Plant Sciences), a team of researchers will bring Cambridge’s expertise on ecosystems and landscape restoration to bear on a two-year project that will identify how best to restore riverside landscapes and ecosystems around palm oil plantations at scale.  

Ed Turner said: ‘We’re delighted that the David and Lucile Packard Foundation has funded this project. Palm oil is the number one source of vegetable oil worldwide, but oil palm’s rapid increase in production has come at a significant cost to tropical forests and peatland areas. This project will allow us to work together with smallholders in Indonesia to trial new methods of providing robust data on the impact of landscape restoration practices on the ecosystem. We hope our findings will provide valuable information for policymakers.’

David Coomes, Director of the University of Cambridge Conservation Research Institute, said: ‘It’s great news that the David and Lucile Packard Foundation is funding this project. Conserving the world’s dwindling biological diversity is one of the most pressing issues facing us today. This project is part of Cambridge’s response to this – and to the twin challenges of biodiversity loss and climate change.’

This project forms part of a significant and growing body of work at Cambridge that looks at nature and climate as integrated challenges. The University of Cambridge Conservation Initiative (led by Professor David Coomes) brings together more than 120 researchers from across the University to support multidisciplinary research on biodiversity conservation. The new Centre for Landscape Regeneration, co-led by Professor Coomes and Professor Emily Shuckburgh, launched earlier this year, is part of a £40 million NERC project to safeguard the UK’s most important ecosystems and agricultural land and regenerate Britain’s countryside. Professor Shuckburgh is also the Director of Cambridge Zero, the University of Cambridge’s response to the climate crisis.