Challenges
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Any manager who is in charge of a plantation or an agricultural cooperative is facing questions about sustainability. The sector is in need for plantations managers who are also sustainability managers. -
Challenges in sustainable forestry
Contradicting forces are shaping the sustainability of tropical forests, which are deeply impacted by global challenges such as climate change, poverty and hunger, uncontrolled demography and urbanisation, and must cope with the emergence of new threats to health and global economy. -
Is social sustainability the next hurdle?
Labor and abuse issues in oil palm plantations have recently received significant international media coverage, highlighting yet another episode in the long history of palm oil transition to sustainable social and environmental practices. Thus, beyond the often-mentioned ecological and climatic sustainability, work-related issues are now a major issue for the industry. -
Fine-tuning sustainable practices through LCA
Today, life cycle assessment (LCA) is the most standardized, internationally recognized methodology for estimating the environmental impact of human activities along a supply chain. -
Rubber Agroforestry Systems (RAS)
Indonesia has been the world's second largest producer of natural rubber for many years (3 million tons in 2020), thus accounting for 25% of global production. As in many countries in Southeast Asia, rubber tree cultivation was developed under colonization in the form of estates. -
Managing soil health in plantations
In plantations, soils are complex systems that sequestrate carbon, purify water, and provide key nutrients and physical support for the plants. Such pivotal ecosystem services are impacted by intensive management practices disturbing soil functionning. There is thus a need to better integrate soil health monitoring programs in plantations.
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Tree crops in the forest: the saga of jungle rubber
At the turn of the 19th century, the Sumatra and Kalimantan plains at low altitude were sparsely inhabited, with a population density of less than 4 persons/km². The population relied mainly on shifting cultivation of upland rice. The introduction of rubber by private Dutch estates in the 1910’s triggered a radical change in the landscape evolution, but not in farming practices, at least at the beginning.