Agricultural areas have expanded dramatically in the tropics, providing food for the world's population, but posing a severe threat to natural habitats and tropical biodiversity. A crop which has attracted particularly negative press and been associated with high levels of deforestation is oil palm.
In this talk Ed Turner, Lecturer and Curator of Insects at the University Museum of Zoology, Cambridge, discusses some of the negative impacts of oil palm expansion, but also the positives of its very high productivity. He explored ways that oil palm can be managed for biodiversity and beneficial ecosystem functions, such as pest control and pollination, and ways that oil palm can be managed to make it more sustainable.
