Policy perils of ignoring uncertainty in oil palm research

Success of the emerging Low Emissions Development paradigm in Southeast Asia depends on mitigating impacts of oil palm (OP) expansion on carbon-dense ecosystems, especially tropical peatlands. To this end, Koh et al. (1) mapped OP planted before 2002 across Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, and Borneo to estimate emissions and biodiversity losses from peatland conversion (≈880,000 ha). Unfortunately, emissions scenarios are oversimplified, remote-sensing (RS) methods are unsuitable for OP monitoring, and recommendations for peatland restoration are overstated.