Myanmar Risks Losing Forests to Oil Palm, but There's Time to Pivot

Nov 13, 2019 | Nanditha Chandraprakash
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Indonesia and Malaysia have long occupied the spotlight for oil palm plantations and their adverse consequences, including deforestation, habitat loss, climate change, and struggles with indigenous and local people. But other Southeast Asian countries are fast joining the two oil palm giants, with Myanmar following their development blueprint by allocating forestland for new plantations: A recent study published in Scientific Reports finds that nearly 60 percent of concessions for oil palm plantations in southern Myanmar consist of forests or non-rubber tree crops.