This atlas reveals forty-two years (1973-2015) of forest degradation by industrial logging, and conversion to industrial oil palm and pulpwood plantations in Borneo, Earth’s third largest island, shared by Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei. With about 8 Million hectares (Mha) of industrial oil palm plantations, about half of the estimated global planted area of 18 Mha, Borneo is the World‘s largest center of palm-oil production. Pulpwood plantations (about 1.3 Mha) – mainly fast growing Acacia and Eucalyptus –make a major contribution to the global production of wood pulp. Plantations have either cause deforestation by replacing forests or avoided this by using previously cleared areas. The extent of these two situations is contested.

This atlas offers the new possibility to distinguish oil palm and pulpwood companies who practiced deforestation from those who avoided it by planting on already deforested land.

Go to map here.