Impacts of Unsustainable Oil Palm Plantation

Currently, Malaysia is the second biggest palm oil producer in the world (after Indonesia) with a total oil palm plantation area of 4.917 million hectares in 2011 which constitutes in about 39 % of world palm oil production. From the environmental perspective, at any occasion that unsustainable management of oil palm plantation may trigger detrimental impacts to the surroundings such as:

Soil erosion

The main impact from oil palm activity is soil erosion. It may occur due to land clearing to allow growing of oil palm. When site clearing is carried out, removal of the protective vegetation cover and disturbance to soil surface will inevitably bring about to soil erosion. There are many other oil palm plantation development activities that lead to soil erosion. These activities include clearing and earthworks construction of access road clearing and earthworks establishment of base camp and site clearing for the nursery. Besides soil erosion, these activities also can give effect on reducing the arable soil from the plantation area. Other than that, it also can reduce the capacity channel of waterways due to the sedimentation of soil and this will eventually cause soil erosion. The increased rates of erosion occur when there is a disturbance of the tree canopy and litter layer. It will result in an increased exposure of the soil surface. And once the soil surface area is exposed, erosion will gradually takes place through a sequence of process starting with the detachment of soil particles by rainfall splash, progressing onto sheet, rill and gully erosion.

Clearing of forests and earthworks for construction of roads and plantation fields are likely to cause soil erosion in nearby areas. Due to the clearance of trees and shrubs, topsoil run-off may increase significantly and increases sediment loads in rivers and streams. The stream-flow in turn will be disturbed and cause various effects on the biodiversity on eroded land as well as in water bodies. Soil erosion has a direct effect on habitat quality. Soil erosion often carries away the topsoil which contains most nutrients for plants and beneficial microorganisms to grow, causing an area barren and unsuitable for the development of microorganisms and plants that were native to that habitat. As a result, degradation of arable land occurs. On the other hand, soil that is washed away gets deposited in waterways, which causes sedimentation in rivers and streams. Subsequently, soil erosion will destroy fragile aquatic habitat and affects the aquatic ecosystems.

Soil contamination

Soil contamination can occur via spraying of chemical at the plantation. The excess of spraying chemical will cause absorption of chemical contents into the soil. The high concentration of chemical will eventually contaminated the soil contents. The use of non-organic fertilizer also may cause soil contamination where this type of fertilizers is not easily biodegradable. When fertilizer is applied to the plantation, the fertilizer will absorb into the soil. The chemical elements from fertilizer will remain in the soil as it does not degrade. Other factor that leads to the soil contamination is the emission from vehicles. The vehicles used for collecting oil palm fruits will release hazardous gas emission which usually contained lead compound. The presence of lead will absorb into the soil and in the long run it will pollute the soil.

Land Clearing (Deforestation)

Deforestation refers to the clearing of trees off an area of land. It includes any forestry practice that results in a change of long-term land use. In this case, land and forests will be cleared for oil palm plantation. As the primary forests are destroyed, the biodiversity especially the faunas will lose their habitat. Some may think that by establishing the oil palm plantation after the destruction of primary forests, a new stable ecosystem will be formed in the plantation itself. In fact, an oil palm plantation can support only 0 - 20% of the species of mammals, reptiles and birds found in primary rainforest, which are mostly species of least conservation concern. This suggested that the oil palm monocultures are not suitable for most of the biodiversity that originally from tropical rainforests. If there is deforestation, animals will be losing their shelters. Those that manage to go through the flat lands and residential sites may be killed by people.

Water Pollution

The soil erosion results from oil palm plantation will pose threats to aquatic ecosystem as well as its biodiversity. The usage of chemicals like fertilizers and pesticides will be carried away by rainwater and soil (if erosion occurs) into nearby waterways. These chemicals may affect the physical and chemical properties such as the pH of the river which commonly known as chemical contamination. Sensitive species may not be able to tolerate the changes and eventually die off or migrate. Fertilizers used in oil palm plantation are rich in nitrogen and phosphorus, which are nutritious to algae and microorganisms. When fertilizers are transported by rainwater into water bodies, such substances will trigger the massive growth of algae (algal bloom). Such situation is disastrous to aquatic ecosystems as algal bloom will cause the production of toxic chemicals and renders the water quality unsuitable for other aquatic species. On the other hand, eutrophication also may take place with the deposition of excess nutrients in the water bodies. Besides nutrient, soil erosion due to oil palm plantation may also cause disease-causing microorganisms to be transported into waterways. Water borne diseases can occur when these disease-causing microorganisms are transmitted via the contaminated water.

Photo taken from www.pecad.fas.usda.gov