Mapping ecosystem services change under land use change for oil palm expansion

Abstract

Growing demand for palm oil is increasingly driving forest conversion in the tropics, leading to the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services (ES). Extensive studies have looked at the impacts of land use change (LUC) for oil palm expansion on biodiversity, but very few have quantified the impacts on ES in growing palm oil producing regions like Africa. We mapped and quantified the impacts of oil palm expansion on carbon storage, soil retention and nutrient retention ES in a palm oil producing region of Cameroon. We used the ESRI Sentinel-2 2017 10 m and ECJRC 2015 1 km Land Cover maps with InVEST models to assess the impacts of LUC for oil palm on ES. We found that present-day oil palm expansion has reduced carbon storage by 0.6 % from a “pre-cultivation” baseline scenario and will likely further reduce by 3.7 % and 6.8 % with 2 km and 4 km expansion. Soil retention is reduced by 0.2 % present-day and will likely reduce by another 5.5 % and 13.9 % while nutrient retention is reduced by 8.4 % and will likely reduce by 22.0 % and 40.4 % with 2 km and 4 km expansion respectively. Such information is necessary to understand the conservation of these ES in light of future oil palm expansion.