Palm oil in Malaysia: biodiversity, carbon sink losses reported

In Singapore, a new study released by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and the National University of Singapore says up to 6% of CO2-absorbing peatlands in Malaysia, Borneo, and Sumatra were converted to palm oil plantations by the early 2000s, leading to a decline in biodiversity (16 species of birds in Sumatra alone) and the loss of carbon sequestration provided by peatlands in the area, which soak up 660,000 mg of carbon each year.

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