Oil Palm Adaptive Landscapes (OPAL)
Project descriptionOil palm cultivation is a principal driver of tropical land-use change and deforestation. Oil palm provides significant earnings for countries, corporations and smallholders, but often at great environmental and social costs within and beyond the landscapes where it is grown.
The OPAL project uses natural and social sciences to build role playing games that reflect existing oil palm landscape realities. Using these games we aim to explore alternative oil palm trajectories with stakeholders and decision makers in Indonesia, Cameroon, and Colombia, to help chart a path towards more sustainable and inclusive futures. More on the project purpose. The project started in March 2015 and is funded for six years. |
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The consortium, led by ETH Zurich, includes international institutions (CIFOR, CIRAD, WWF), universities (University of Javeriana, Bogor Agricultural University, EPF Lausanne), and consulting firms specialized in oil palm (NES Naturaleza), and a number of local grower associations.
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The OPAL project is taking place in Switzerland and in three oil palm growing countries: Cameroon, Colombia and Indonesia.
Find out more about: OPAL in Cameroon OPAL in Colombia OPAL in Indonesia OPAL in Switzerland |
News and Events
"Wearing Borneo's farmers shoes through a role-playing game" on the ETH Ambassadors Blog
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Mongabay writing about our recent publication about oil palm and threatened species in Colombia.
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IUCN Palm Oil and biodiversity report, by John Garcia (OPAL project) and others. Draws on OPAL work in Colombia.
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Palm Oil Diplomacy at the Crossroads, or how the debate between the European Union and Indonesia can lead to opportunity or disaster.
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FOREST NEWS publishes a series of four blogs about the OPAL work in Cameroon, Colombia and Indonesia, and one video.
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Is banning palm oil the right solution? Read the blog written by OPAL team members.
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Policy makers in Indonesia are playing our game to understand the complexity of the sustainability issue.
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Meijaard, E., Garcia-Ulloa, J., Sheil, D., Wich, S. A., Carlson, K. M., Juffe-Bignoli, D., & Brooks, T. M. (2018). Oil palm and biodiversity: a situation analysis by the IUCN Oil Palm Task Force. https://doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.CH.2018.11.en
Yulian, B. E., Dharmawan, A. H., Soetarto, E., & Pacheco, P. (2018). Livelihood Dilemma of The Rural Household Around The Oil Palm Plantation in East Kalimantan. Sodality: Jurnal Sosiologi Pedesaan, 5(3). http://dx.doi.org/10.22500/sodality.v5i3.19398
Guillaume, T., Kotowska, M., Hertel, D., Knohl, A., Krashevska, V., Murtilaksono, K., Scheu, S. and Kuzyakov, Y. (2018) Carbon costs and benefits of Indonesian rainforest conversion to plantations. Nature Communications volume 9 2388. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-04755-y
Ocampo-Peñuela, N., Garcia-Ulloa, J., Ghazoul, J. and Etter, A. (2018). Quantifying impacts of oil palm expansion on Colombia's threatened
biodiversity. Biological Conservation 224, 117–121. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2018.05.024
Manoli, G., Meijide, A., Huth, N., Knohl, A., Kosugi, Y., Burlando, P., Ghazoul, J., and Fatichi, S. (2018). Ecohydrological changes after tropical forest conversion to oil palm. Environmental Research Letters 13 064035. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aac54e
Manoli, G., Ivanov, V. Y., & Fatichi, S. (2018). Dry-season greening and water stress in Amazonia: The role of modeling leaf phenology. Journal of Geophysical Research, 123. https://doi.org/10.1029/2017JG004282
Garcia, C., Dray, A., and Waeber, P. (2016). Learning begins when the game is over: Using games to embrace complexity in natural resources management. GAIA-Ecological Perspectives for Science and Society, 25(4), 289-291. https://doi.org/10.14512/gaia.25.4.13
Dray, A., Fauvelle, E., Levang, P., Ngom, E., Ghazoul, J., & García, C. (2016). La transdisciplinarité, un jeu d’enfant? Comprendre les moteurs du changement en milieu forestier tropical. Hotspot, 34, 8-9. Read the article in French (or in German).
Yulian, B. E., Dharmawan, A. H., Soetarto, E., & Pacheco, P. (2018). Livelihood Dilemma of The Rural Household Around The Oil Palm Plantation in East Kalimantan. Sodality: Jurnal Sosiologi Pedesaan, 5(3). http://dx.doi.org/10.22500/sodality.v5i3.19398
Guillaume, T., Kotowska, M., Hertel, D., Knohl, A., Krashevska, V., Murtilaksono, K., Scheu, S. and Kuzyakov, Y. (2018) Carbon costs and benefits of Indonesian rainforest conversion to plantations. Nature Communications volume 9 2388. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-04755-y
Ocampo-Peñuela, N., Garcia-Ulloa, J., Ghazoul, J. and Etter, A. (2018). Quantifying impacts of oil palm expansion on Colombia's threatened
biodiversity. Biological Conservation 224, 117–121. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2018.05.024
Manoli, G., Meijide, A., Huth, N., Knohl, A., Kosugi, Y., Burlando, P., Ghazoul, J., and Fatichi, S. (2018). Ecohydrological changes after tropical forest conversion to oil palm. Environmental Research Letters 13 064035. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aac54e
Manoli, G., Ivanov, V. Y., & Fatichi, S. (2018). Dry-season greening and water stress in Amazonia: The role of modeling leaf phenology. Journal of Geophysical Research, 123. https://doi.org/10.1029/2017JG004282
Garcia, C., Dray, A., and Waeber, P. (2016). Learning begins when the game is over: Using games to embrace complexity in natural resources management. GAIA-Ecological Perspectives for Science and Society, 25(4), 289-291. https://doi.org/10.14512/gaia.25.4.13
Dray, A., Fauvelle, E., Levang, P., Ngom, E., Ghazoul, J., & García, C. (2016). La transdisciplinarité, un jeu d’enfant? Comprendre les moteurs du changement en milieu forestier tropical. Hotspot, 34, 8-9. Read the article in French (or in German).
Videos
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Game played in Colombia:
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