Biofuels, oil palm and agribusiness in Southeast Asia – planning for sustainability?

The document examines the rollout of biofuels and agribusiness in Southeast Asia, finding that promised poverty reduction and rural development benefits often fail to materialize. It highlights systemic issues including unclear land tenure, the vulnerability of small-scale producers, and weak enforcement of environmental laws. The authors argue that investments frequently precede inclusive development planning, leading to social tensions and ecological risks, and recommend prioritizing 'upstream' planning and strengthening dispute resolution mechanisms.

• The expansion of biofuel feedstock projects is often justified as a poverty reduction strategy, but research indicates these claims are frequently unsubstantiated, with no formal assessments of the transition from subsistence farming to plantation wage labour.
• Land tenure is frequently unclear, leading to disputes when investors and governments claim land is "vacant" while ignoring existing customary rights of local communities.
• Small-scale producers face significant vulnerabilities, including a lack of clear pricing and extension services in Indonesia, and high transaction costs for sustainability certification in Thailand, where only 2.3% of palm oil production was certified as of May 2015.
• Government agencies in the studied regions struggle to implement legal and environmental frameworks; for example, in Indonesia, provincial and district environment offices reported having no tools to penalize companies for breaking environmental laws.
• There is a critical lack of effective dispute resolution mechanisms for local grievances. In Indonesia's Central Kalimantan, the provincial environment agency reported investigating less than 1% of complaints, while in the Philippines, laws against illegal expansion into forestlands and indigenous lands were rarely enforced.
• A systemic failure exists where investments in the biofuels sector occur before inclusive 'upstream' development planning, meaning alternative livelihood options and food security impacts are not explored before landscapes are converted.

APA

Larsen, R. K., Atteridge, A., Kemp-Benedict, E., Nguyen, H., & Osbeck, M. (2015). Biofuels, oil palm and agribusiness in Southeast Asia – planning for sustainability? Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-DB-2015-biofuels-southeast-asia.pdf

Chicago

Larsen, Rasmus Kløcker, Aaron Atteridge, Eric Kemp-Benedict, Ha Nguyen, and Maria Osbeck. Biofuels, oil palm and agribusiness in Southeast Asia – planning for sustainability? Stockholm Environment Institute, 2015. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-DB-2015-biofuels-southeast-asia.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Larsen |first1=Rasmus Kløcker |last2=Atteridge |first2=Aaron |last3=Kemp-Benedict |first3=Eric |last4=Nguyen |first4=Ha |last5=Osbeck |first5=Maria |title=Biofuels, oil palm and agribusiness in Southeast Asia – planning for sustainability? |publisher=Stockholm Environment Institute |date=2015 |url=https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-DB-2015-biofuels-southeast-asia.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{larsen2015biofuels, author = {Larsen, Rasmus Kløcker and Atteridge, Aaron and Kemp-Benedict, Eric and Nguyen, Ha and Osbeck, Maria}, title = {{Biofuels, oil palm and agribusiness in Southeast Asia – planning for sustainability?}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2015}, url = {https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-DB-2015-biofuels-southeast-asia.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }