印尼油棕产业的扩张改善了农村社区的生计,但以生物多样性和生态系统退化为代价。这里,我们研究了平衡油棕种植的生态和经济成果的方法。我们比较了各种各样的生产系统,包括小农种植园,工业化公司庄园,农艺管理得到改善的庄园,和本地树木丰富的庄园。在所有管理类型中,我们评估了生物多样性的多个指标,生态系统功能,管理,和景观结构,以确定促进经济生态双赢的因素,用棕榈产量作为经济表现的衡量标准。虽然,我们发现工业化房地产的产量是,平均而言,是小农种植园的两倍,生态指标在不同系统中表现出巨大的变异性,无论产量变化如何,突出经济生态双赢的潜力。降低管理强度(例如,机械除草代替除草剂的施用)并没有降低产量,但以适度的成本改善了生态结果,使其成为平衡经济和生态需求的潜在措施。此外,维持景观中的森林覆盖通常会增强种植园内的当地生物多样性和生态系统功能。用本地树木丰富种植园也是在不降低生产力的情况下提高生态价值的有希望的策略。总的来说,我们建议通过谨慎的集约化来缩小小农种植的产量差距,而传统的人工林可以在不牺牲产量的情况下降低管理强度。我们的研究强调了协调棕榈油生产的经济学和生态学的各种途径,并确定了更可持续的油棕种植未来的管理实践。
The expansion of the oil palm industry in Indonesia has improved livelihoods in rural communities, but comes at the cost of biodiversity and ecosystem degradation. Here, we investigated ways to balance ecological and economic outcomes of oil palm cultivation. We compared a wide range of production systems, including smallholder plantations, industrialized company estates, estates with improved agronomic management, and estates with native tree enrichment. Across all management types, we assessed multiple indicators of biodiversity, ecosystem functions, management, and landscape structure to identify factors that facilitate economic-ecological win-wins, using palm yields as measure of economic performance. Although, we found that yields in industrialized estates were, on average, twice as high as those in smallholder plantations, ecological indicators displayed substantial variability across systems, regardless of yield variations, highlighting potential for economic-ecological win-wins. Reducing management intensity (e.g., mechanical weeding instead of herbicide application) did not lower yields but improved ecological outcomes at moderate costs, making it a potential measure for balancing economic and ecological demands. Additionally, maintaining forest cover in the landscape generally enhanced local biodiversity and ecosystem functioning within plantations. Enriching plantations with native trees is also a promising strategy to increase ecological value without reducing productivity. Overall, we recommend closing yield gaps in smallholder cultivation through careful intensification, whereas conventional plantations could reduce management intensity without sacrificing yield. Our study highlights various pathways to reconcile the economics and ecology of palm oil production and identifies management practices for a more sustainable future of oil palm cultivation.