How to Actually Save the Rainforest

Brazilian Amazon rainforest experienced record-breaking fire season during 2019 with National Institute for Space Research detecting over 74,000 fires between January and August.

World’s rainforests across South America, Africa, and Asia face complete disappearance within approximately one hundred years if current deforestation levels continue unchecked.

Borneo rainforests experienced catastrophic destruction losing average 850,000 hectares annually between 1985 and 2005 threatening complete ecosystem collapse within coming decades.

Nearly 150,000 critically endangered Bornean orangutans died between 1999 and 2015 representing catastrophic population collapse driven by rainforest conversion to palm oil plantations.

Food industry scrambled finding trans fat alternatives during 1980s when cardiovascular health dangers became scientifically established, selecting palm oil as primary replacement substance.

Environmentalists ironically promoted biodiesel production during recent decades intending to reduce fossil fuel carbon emissions without foreseeing contradictory consequences driving rainforest destruction.

Palm oil boom during 21st century resulted in thousands of square miles of Borneo lowland forests cleared and planted with oil palm monoculture creating completely transformed landscapes.

Indonesia and Malaysia together supply 85 percent of world’s palm oil production representing extreme market concentration in Southeast Asian tropical forest regions.

Palm oil appears in vast array of consumer products making avoidance nearly impossible in modern life with individuals consuming average 8 kilograms annually.

European and United States palm oil boycott campaigns including grocery chain Iceland viral advertisements feel emotionally satisfying but prove insufficient because Western consumers account for less than 14 percent global demand.

Scientists conducting Stability of Altered Forest Ecosystems (SAFE) Project deep in Malaysian Borneo research biodiversity and ecosystem function changes as forests are modified by palm oil plantation expansion.

SAFE Project represents extremely rare and valuable experimental design where scientists cooperate directly with palm oil plantation owners conducting deforestation enabling researchers choosing experimental site locations rather than studying accidental clearing patterns.

SAFE Project’s overall goal determines minimum critical size forest fragments can be before failing to operate as functional tropical ecosystems providing scientifically-grounded conservation planning thresholds.

SAFE Project ultimate goal finds best way to sustainably farm palm oil discovering compromise between agricultural production and biodiversity conservation enabling rainforest survival alongside economic development.

SAFE Project study found riparian reserves with over 40 meters natural vegetation on each riverbank supported similar bird diversity to continuous forests but required at least 100 meters width supporting equivalent numbers of conservation-concern species.

SAFE Project study concluded overall mammal species richness was conserved even in degraded forests that might otherwise be thought too damaged already to merit conservation protection.

SAFE Project study found unexpectedly that land use changes from forest conversion to palm oil plantations had no impact on biomass or number of fish in small streams.

Governmental guidelines on riparian reserve vegetation width around rivers vary dramatically across Southeast Asian regions ranging from 5 meters in some Malaysian states to 50 meters in Indonesia creating inconsistent conservation protection.

SAFE Project results will be funneled to policymakers and members of Round Table for Sustainable Palm Oil attempting to establish systems where rainforests survive and rebound despite current deforestation.

Fairly rampant corruption in many palm oil producing countries undermines conservation progress made through research and policy development creating seemingly impossible battle requiring years of sustained effort.