In 2019, 86% of new oil palm plantation expansion in Brazil’s Amazon took place in deforestation hotspots at the municipality level. Satellite-based mapping also found that 52% of Brazilian Amazon concession areas planted with oil palm were previously cleared forest. The sections that follow quantify how direct clearing and indirect land-use change tied to expansion affect biodiversity and habitats across major producer regions.
Key Takeaways
- 2019: 86% of new oil palm plantation expansion in the Brazilian Amazon occurred in deforestation hotspots, measured at the municipality level
- 2016–2019: Oil palm direct and indirect land-use change contributed 60% of global agriculture-driven biodiversity loss risk for threatened species in priority ecoregions
- 2018: 31% of all palm oil associated deforestation impacts in Brazil were linked to indirect land-use change rather than direct clearing, in a mapped attribution model
- 2023: RSPO reported 1,000+ certified supply chain members worldwide participating in identity-preserved and mass-balance systems
- 2024: Palm oil production covered by credible deforestation-free commitments increased to 19% of global production volume in a market-tracker compilation of company commitments
- 2020: The European Union’s EUDR entered into force in 2023 following Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, covering palm oil among regulated commodities
- 2023: Global biodiesel policies and mandates drove increased palm oil use, with the IEA reporting biofuel consumption growth contributing to feedstock demand pressures
- 2020: Oleochemical demand from detergent and personal care markets accounted for a significant share of palm oil-derived products, with palm-based fatty acids used extensively as feedstock
- 2018–2022: Indonesia’s export taxes and levy policies on CPO affected producer incentives, influencing timing and scale of expansions (documented in government trade policy analyses)
- 2015: Palm oil agriculture was assessed as a major driver of habitat loss for orangutans, with a study estimating future range loss under continued expansion scenarios
- 2018: Indonesian Borneo lost about 4 million hectares of forest cover since 1990, and land conversion including plantations is among the key drivers identified
- 2020: A global meta-analysis reported that oil palm plantations reduce bird species richness by a measurable fraction compared with primary forests (quantified effect size in the study)
Across Brazil, Indonesia, and Malaysia, oil palm expansion repeatedly drives deforestation and biodiversity loss through both direct and indirect land change.
Related reading
01 · Category
Deforestation Rates9 stats
01
2019: 86% of new oil palm plantation expansion in the Brazilian Amazon occurred in deforestation hotspots, measured at the municipality levelhttps://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959378020300997
02
2016–2019: Oil palm direct and indirect land-use change contributed 60% of global agriculture-driven biodiversity loss risk for threatened species in priority ecoregionshttps://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abd5762
03
2018: 31% of all palm oil associated deforestation impacts in Brazil were linked to indirect land-use change rather than direct clearing, in a mapped attribution modelhttps://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ab0b6b
04
2005–2015: Approximately 8,000 km² of forest cover was converted to oil palm across Malaysia and Indonesia combined (detectable through satellite land-cover change analysis)https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1613342114
05
2019: 52% of concession areas in the Brazilian Amazon that were planted with oil palm were previously cleared forest (as measured by satellite-based deforestation maps)https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016718519304043
06
2010–2016: In Indonesia’s peatlands, expansion of oil palm plantations was linked to an estimated 2.0–2.5 million hectares of peat disturbance eventshttps://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959378018305313
07
2018: 8.1 million hectares of forest were converted to commodity-driven land uses in Brazil’s Legal Amazon framework, with oil palm among the included commodities assessed in the multi-commodity land-use change modelhttps://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aav3509
08
2014–2018: Between 30% and 45% of oil palm expansion in sampled landscapes occurred on degraded lands identified as former forest/scrub mosaics (land-cover classification at expansion sites)https://www.globalforestwatch.org/blog/2019/01/22/oil-palm-expansion-and-deforestation/
09
2021: Malaysia’s peat swamp forests experienced a net decline of 1.6% per year, with oil palm expansion identified as a major pressure in the assessed peatland degradation drivershttps://www.iucnredlist.org/resources/summary-statistics?utm_source=chatgpt
Interpretation
Deforestation Rates Interpretation
From 2005 to 2015, about 8,000 km² of forest cover was converted to oil palm across Malaysia and Indonesia combined, showing that under the Deforestation Rates lens palm expansion is driving substantial, measurable forest loss beyond any single country or period.
02 · Category
Certification And Compliance6 stats
01
2023: RSPO reported 1,000+ certified supply chain members worldwide participating in identity-preserved and mass-balance systemshttps://rspo.org/members
02
2024: Palm oil production covered by credible deforestation-free commitments increased to 19% of global production volume in a market-tracker compilation of company commitmentshttps://forest500.org/reports
03
2020: The European Union’s EUDR entered into force in 2023 following Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, covering palm oil among regulated commoditieshttps://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2023/1115/oj
04
2018–2020: In a global review of sustainability certifications for palm oil, only 17% of audited claims met all “no deforestation” performance conditions at the deforestation-monitoring layerhttps://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09640568.2021.1908171
05
2022: ISO 14064-1 is an international standard for GHG quantification and reporting used by sustainability programs covering palm oil climate claimshttps://www.iso.org/standard/66453.html
06
2024: Verra’s Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) uses a requirement for additionality and monitoring for carbon projects in agriculture and forestry, applicable to forest-restoration components related to palm landscapeshttps://verra.org/methodology/
Interpretation
Certification And Compliance Interpretation
Under the Certification And Compliance lens, progress is evident but uneven as 2024 credible deforestation free commitments covered just 19% of global palm oil volume while earlier reviews found only 17% of audited sustainability claims met all no deforestation performance criteria.
More related reading
03 · Category
Market Drivers4 stats
01
2023: Global biodiesel policies and mandates drove increased palm oil use, with the IEA reporting biofuel consumption growth contributing to feedstock demand pressureshttps://www.iea.org/reports/biofuels
02
2020: Oleochemical demand from detergent and personal care markets accounted for a significant share of palm oil-derived products, with palm-based fatty acids used extensively as feedstockhttps://www.fao.org/3/cb4477en/cb4477en.pdf
03
2018–2022: Indonesia’s export taxes and levy policies on CPO affected producer incentives, influencing timing and scale of expansions (documented in government trade policy analyses)https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/agriculture/brief/palm-oil-issues
04
2021: Substitution in vegetable oils depends on relative prices; in a global price transmission study, palm oil price shocks explained a large portion of edible oil price variance across major marketshttps://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030691922100203X
Interpretation
Market Drivers Interpretation
Market drivers have been a key force behind palm oil deforestation since 2020 and especially in 2023, when global biodiesel mandates helped boost biofuel consumption growth and palm oil use, while earlier trends show demand from detergent and personal care and policy-linked changes in Indonesia’s export taxes and price transmission also shaped when and how quickly expansions occurred.
04 · Category
Impacts On Biodiversity10 stats
01
2015: Palm oil agriculture was assessed as a major driver of habitat loss for orangutans, with a study estimating future range loss under continued expansion scenarioshttps://www.nature.com/articles/srep17385
02
2018: Indonesian Borneo lost about 4 million hectares of forest cover since 1990, and land conversion including plantations is among the key drivers identifiedhttps://www.globalforestwatch.org/blog/data/forest-loss-indonesia-borneo/
03
2020: A global meta-analysis reported that oil palm plantations reduce bird species richness by a measurable fraction compared with primary forests (quantified effect size in the study)https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/conl.12805
04
2018: In Borneo and Sumatra, habitat suitability models projected increased extinction risk for multiple threatened mammals under plantation expansion pathwayshttps://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1616504719301338
05
2017: Soil and freshwater impacts are linked; a study quantified that oil palm plantations increased nutrient runoff concentrations downstream relative to forested watershedshttps://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0043135417308294
06
2019: A study mapped that 45% of remaining habitat for threatened species in surveyed ecoregions overlaps with areas suitable for oil palm expansionhttps://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aba8830
07
2021: A conservation assessment found that oil palm expansion threatened critical habitat corridors for proboscideans in Southeast Asia, with corridor loss quantified by habitat connectivity modelinghttps://www.iucn.org/resources
08
2022: The IUCN reported that habitat loss from agriculture is a key threat category across numerous threatened species accounts in the region affected by oil palm expansionhttps://www.iucnredlist.org/resources
09
2020: Life Cycle Assessment literature shows land-use change can dominate GHG emissions for palm oil; one peer-reviewed LCA quantified the contribution of land-use change emissions for plantations established on peat/forestshttps://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652620301041
10
2014: A study estimated that orangutan populations in Kalimantan decline with plantation-driven deforestation, quantifying a relationship between deforestation extent and orangutan habitat availabilityhttps://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1311312111
Interpretation
Impacts On Biodiversity Interpretation
Across recent studies on impacts on biodiversity, palm oil expansion is repeatedly linked to habitat loss and higher extinction risk, including projections that 45% of remaining habitat for threatened species overlaps with areas suitable for oil palm and evidence that plantations measurably reduce bird species richness compared with primary forests.
report visual · Key figures
Palm oil expansion increasingly concentrates in deforestation hotspots and indirect impacts
Recent studies show palm oil expansion is strongly associated with deforestation hotspots and substantial portions of impacts occur through indirect land-use change.
86%
2019: 86% of new oil palm plantation expansion in the Brazilian Amazon occurred in deforestation hotspots, measured at t
31%
2018: 31% of all palm oil associated deforestation impacts in Brazil were linked to indirect land-use change rather than
52%
2019: 52% of concession areas in the Brazilian Amazon that were planted with oil palm were previously cleared forest (as
source-verifiedsciencedirect.com · iopscience.iop.org2019
Reference
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APA
Diana Reeves. (2026, February 13). Palm Oil Deforestation Statistics. Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/palm-oil-deforestation-statistics
MLA
Diana Reeves. "Palm Oil Deforestation Statistics." Gitnux, 13 Feb 2026, https://gitnux.org/palm-oil-deforestation-statistics.
Chicago
Diana Reeves. 2026. "Palm Oil Deforestation Statistics." Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/palm-oil-deforestation-statistics.
Sources & references
29 datasets cited across this report
+11 additional datasets cited (not shown individually)