Palm oil and biodiversity News

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A herd of female and young Borneo elephants eat chipped palms in a plantation.

Uniting plantations to save Bornean elephants: Interview with Farina Othman

Lee Kwai Han 10 Jun 2025
A Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) hangs from the trees. Fewer than 100,000 orangutans remain on Borneo. Photo by Rhett A. Butler.

Orangutan habitat under siege as palm oil company clears forest in Borneo

Hans Nicholas Jong 29 Apr 2025

Indonesian president says palm oil expansion won’t deforest because ‘oil palms have leaves’

Hans Nicholas Jong 3 Jan 2025

#AllEyesonPapua goes viral to highlight threat to Indigenous forests from palm oil

Hans Nicholas Jong 7 Jun 2024
A southern pig-tailed macaques infant.

‘Shocking’ mortality of infant macaques points to dangers of oil palm plantations

Spoorthy Raman 27 Feb 2024

Palm oil giants push out smallholders in Guatemala; deforestation risks remain

Shanna Hanbury 8 Jan 2024
Community tree nursery

How scientists and a community are bringing a Bornean river corridor back to life

Carolyn Cowan 22 Nov 2023
The electric-blue tarantula, Chilobrachys natanicharum, found in Thailand. Image courtesy of Yuranan Nanthaisong

New electric-blue tarantula species is first found in Thailand mangroves

Liz Kimbrough 9 Oct 2023
Plantation workers loading oil palm fruit off a truck in Sabah, Malaysia.

Group certification helps Malaysia’s Sabah aim for palm oil sustainability

Louise Hunt 19 Sep 2023

Oil palms may be magnet for macaques, boars, at expense of other biodiversity

Carolyn Cowan 7 Aug 2023
A Sumatran elephant in South Sumatra.

Elephant encounters rattle farmers in Indonesia’s Jambi province

Yitno Suprapto 1 Aug 2023
Robert Risch.

Nursing oil palm plantations back to nature in Malaysian Borneo

Louise Hunt 26 Jul 2023
Oil palm plantation

Degraded, but not defunct: Modified land still has wildlife value, study says

Carolyn Cowan 7 Jul 2023

Palm oil company in Ecuador operates illegally on ancestral land, community says

Maxwell Radwin 19 Jun 2023
A green crested lizard in Borneo.

‘Tree islands’ boost diversity in oil palm plantations, study finds

Sean Mowbray 19 Jun 2023
Batin Irasan, the village’s ketua adat, or spiritual leader.

Sumatra Indigenous community displaced by Samsung palm oil unit await justice

Suryadi 6 Jun 2023
Workers fertilizing on an oil palm plantation.

EU deforestation tracking regulation sparks division among groups, producers

Hans Nicholas Jong 9 May 2023
Activist Emmanuel Elong at the foot of an ancestral tomb on the sacred site of Bayong Mbonjo. Photo by Yannick Kenné.

Palm oil giant hands over sacred community land for reforestation project

Yannick Kenné 4 May 2023

Palm oil deforestation hits record high in Sumatra’s ‘orangutan capital’

Hans Nicholas Jong 23 Mar 2023

Orangutan death in Sumatra points to human-wildlife conflict, illegal trade

Ayat S. Karokaro, Sri Wahyuni 6 Mar 2023
A margay.

Forest loss may push tree-dependent marbled cats into threatened category

Sean Mowbray 8 Feb 2023

Emmanuel Macron’s “Biodiversity Credits”: What are we talking about? (commentary)

Alain Karsenty 16 Dec 2022

Indonesia’s orangutans declining amid ‘lax’ and ‘laissez-faire’ law enforcement

Basten Gokkon 25 Nov 2022
Yasmin trails her son Junaidi on their farm.

Photos: Meet the Indonesians on the front lines of human-elephant conflict in Sumatra

Fieni Aprilia 11 Aug 2022
A herd of elephants in Cot Girek.

‘Chased from every side’: Sumatran elephants pinned down by forest loss

Dyna Rochmyaningsih 10 Aug 2022
A male orangutan in Indonesian Borneo. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.

Deforestation in Borneo threatens one in four orangutans, study says

Basten Gokkon 26 Jul 2022
Leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis).

Study assesses wildlife exposure to rat poison on oil palm plantations

Sean Mowbray 13 Jul 2022

Draining tropical peatlands for oil palms isn’t just bad — it’s unnecessary, study shows

Hans Nicholas Jong 15 Jun 2022
Yadi, a member of the Menapo House

Saving medicinal plants a village cause in Indonesia

Warief Djajanto Basorie, Yitno Suprapto 26 May 2022
Black-and-yellow broadbill (Eurylaimus ochromalus), a near threatened bird species recorded during point count surveys in an agroforestry orchard in Rembau, Malaysia.

In oil palm-dominated Malaysia, agroforestry orchards are oases of bird life: Study

Grace Dungey 11 May 2022

Indonesia’s three most consequential forestry stories of 2021

Philip Jacobson 24 Dec 2021

Report: Orangutans and their habitat in Indonesia need full protection now

Basten Gokkon 19 Nov 2021

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