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. 2019 Aug 15;9(1):11931.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-48443-3.

Oil palm concessions in southern Myanmar consist mostly of unconverted forest

Keiko Nomura  1 , Edward T A Mitchard  2 , Genevieve Patenaude  2 , Joan Bastide  3 , Patrick Oswald  4 , Thazin Nwe  5
Affiliations

Oil palm concessions in southern Myanmar consist mostly of unconverted forest

Keiko Nomura et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

The increased demand for palm oil has led to an expansion of oil palm concessions in the tropics, and the clearing of abundant forest as a result. However, concessions are typically incompletely planted to varying degrees, leaving much land unused. The remaining forests within such concessions are at high risk of deforestation, as there are normally no legal hurdles to their clearance, therefore making them excellent targets for conservation. We investigated the location of oil palm plantations and the other major crop - rubber plantations in southern Myanmar, and compared them to concession boundaries. Our results show that rubber plantations cover much larger areas than oil palm in the region, indicating that rubber is the region's preferred crop. Furthermore, only 15% of the total concession area is currently planted with oil palm (49,000 ha), while 25,000 ha is planted outside concession boundaries. While this may in part be due to uncertain and/or changing boundaries, this leaves most of the concession area available for other land uses, including forest conservation and communities' livelihood needs. Reconsidering the remaining concession areas can also significantly reduce future emission risks from the region.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Tanintharyi region in Myanmar, Southeast Asia (right); oil palm concessions, national parks (designated and proposed), and protected areas in the region (left) as of 2018. Note that approximately 25,000 ha of concession area overlap with two proposed national parks (the Tanintharyi National Park and the Lenya National Park). The underlying map on the left is the Sentinel-2 cloud-free composite between November 2018 and January 2019.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Planted area estimates by district. The pie chart shows land use of concession areas in each district, with the size corresponding to the size of total concessions.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Classification results: map of the region by class (concession areas brighter).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Classification results: concessions inside proposed national parks (concession areas brighter).
Figure 5
Figure 5
Land use of oil palm concession area. Other trees include forests, tree plantations and tree-crops other than oil palm and rubber such as areca (betel nut) or cashew nut trees. Shrub includes grassland, open canopy, and young and low vegetation. Bare land includes sand.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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