Carbon Emissions from Oil Palm Induced Forest and Peatland Conversion in Sabah and Sarawak, Malaysia

Wan Shafrina Wan Mohd Jaafar,Biswajeet Pradhan,Midhun Mohan,Carlos Alberto Silva,Khairul Nizam Abdul Maulud,Adrián Cardil,Mohd Talib Latif,Eben North Broadbent,Royston Uning,Aisyah Marliza Muhmad Kamarulzaman,Mohd Sobri Takriff,Siti Nor Maizah Saad,Nor Fitrah Syazwani Said

doi:10.3390/f11121285

Abstract

The palm oil industry is one of the major producers of vegetable oil in the tropics. Palm oil is used extensively for the manufacture of a wide variety of products and its production is increasing by around 9% every year, prompted largely by the expanding biofuel markets. The rise in annual demand for biofuels and vegetable oil from importer countries has caused a dramatic increase in the conversion of forests and peatlands into oil palm plantations in Malaysia. This study assessed the area of forests and peatlands converted into oil palm plantations from 1990 to 2018 in the states of Sarawak and Sabah, Malaysia, and estimated the resulting carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. To do so, we analyzed multitemporal 30-m resolution Landsat-5 and Landsat-8 images using a hybrid method that combined automatic image processing and manual analyses. We found that over the 28-year period, forest cover declined by 12.6% and 16.3%, and the peatland area declined by 20.5% and 19.1% in Sarawak and Sabah, respectively. In 2018, we found that these changes resulted in CO2 emissions of 0.01577 and 0.00086 Gt CO2-C yr−1, as compared to an annual forest CO2 uptake of 0.26464 and 0.15007 Gt CO2-C yr−1, in Sarawak and Sabah, respectively. Our assessment highlights that carbon impacts extend beyond lost standing stocks, and result in substantial direct emissions from the oil palm plantations themselves, with 2018 oil palm plantations in our study area emitting up to 4% of CO2 uptake by remaining forests. Limiting future climate change impacts requires enhanced economic incentives for land uses that neither convert standing forests nor result in substantial CO2 emissions.

Highlights

Forests play a significant role in reducing the negative impacts of global climate change by absorbing carbon dioxide (CO2 ) and storing it in tree biomass; they contribute to preserving watersheds and natural habitats for wildlife
Precision measurement indices based on a confusion matrix, user’s accuracy (UA), and producer’s accuracy (PA)
Sarawak state government had targeted to develop about 2 million ha of oil palm plantation by 2020 [46]; our findings show that Sarawak’s oil palm plantation had reached 1.9 million ha in 2018 −18% overestimated than Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) reports [51] and a recent study by Meijaard et al 2018 [52]

Summary

Introduction

Forests play a significant role in reducing the negative impacts of global climate change by absorbing carbon dioxide (CO2 ) and storing it in tree biomass; they contribute to preserving watersheds and natural habitats for wildlife. Oil palm, being an omnipresent agricultural commodity, has a significant impact on the environment. These rapid changes in land use have been associated with the degradation of natural resources and environmental pollution [8]. In Malaysia, oil palm demand has grown over the past few decades and this trend has been amplified over the last few years [9]. This rapid growth of the palm oil industry has resulted in increased production and land use and land cover (LULC) change [10]. Oil palm cultivation expanded from 54,700 hectares in early 1960 to 5.64 million hectares by the year 2015, and Malaysia’s Ministry of Primary Industry has proposed to cap the oil palm plantation area to 6.5 million hectares by 2023 [11]

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Conclusion