CIFOR’s Borneo Atlas shows steady decline of deforestation for palm oil

In Indonesia, in a welcome “good news” story for the world’s carbon stocks and biodiversity, the felling of old-growth forest for oil palm plantations on the island of Borneo has tracked a steady decline since its 2012 peak.

That is according to the revamped Borneo Atlas, a new tool which combines annual satellite data from the past 18 years with information on land ownership. It creates the clearest picture yet of the relationship between deforestation and the development of industrial oil palm and pulp-and-paper plantations on Borneo, which is shared between Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei.

The free web atlas developed by scientists at the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) could have significant implications for how companies and governments operate in and around the world’s remaining old-growth forests.