Wild Asia - Managing Biodiversity in Oil Palm Plantations

Managing Biodiversity in Oil Palm Plantations - What works and what doesn't?

by Dave Bakewell

"Biodiversity for Busy Managers" is a new initiative of Wild Asia to develop useful and practical resources for those on the frontline of land developments. The idea is to inspire and guide managers and planners to address and tackle key biodiversity issues that apply to land developers. We are not aiming to reinvent what's already out there - but we hope to provide that critical link to the land developers and planners on the frontline of land developments.

As part of our effort to inspire future leaders in plantations, we are looking for good case studies and insights on how plantations protect, enhance or manage biodiversity within their plantations and beyond. We'd love to have you share your biodiversity efforts, such as:

You have begun to address problems of waterway pollution
You have set aside an area or areas within the plantation to be managed for their conservation value
You have begun to engage stakeholders outside your plantation on issues of importance for your ecosystem (eg water catchment area)
You have begun to tackle issues of illegal encroachment, hunting or logging within your plantation area
You have some experience of dealing with human/wildlife conflict within your plantation area
You have some other experience related to biodiversity management within your plantation

If you have stories of innovative techniques or success stories in conserving biodiversity that you'd be willing to share, we'd like to hear about them! If you have stories of things you've tried but which did not work, or were only partially successful, we'd also like to hear about these too (and will respect any requests for anonymity!).

Please consider sending us a brief account of your experience (c200-300 words), with the following sub-sections:

A brief description of the location and scale of the site
What the problem/issue was
What you did
What was the result/has been the result so far
To what extent has the idea been successful?
Possible reasons for success or failure

With your permission, we would like to publish your stories as a series of cases studies and use some of them in the Biodiversity for Busy Managers training workshop. Photographs (with explanatory captions) to accompany your account would be much appreciated.

This is your chance to showcase your endeavours and publicize some positive news about oil palm plantations and biodiversity!

Please email your accounts and photographs to Dave Bakewell.

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Original URL: http://www.wildasia.org/main.cfm/B4BM/Biodiversity_in_OP

Published: 12 January 2010