Oil Palm as a Carbon Sink - or a Conditional Sink? Reconciling Photosynthetic Uptake, Ecosystem Carbon Storage, Land-Use Change, Peat Emissions, and Life-Cycle Greenhouse-Gas Balances

Loso Judijanto

doi:10.59890/ijgsr.v4i9.344

Authors

Loso Judijanto IPOSS Jakarta

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.59890/ijgsr.v4i9.344

Keywords:

Oil Palm; Carbon Sink, Carbon Sequestration, Ecosystem Carbon Balance, Land-Use Change, Tropical Peatland, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Soil Organic Carbon, Life-Cycle Assessment, Climate Mitigation

Abstract

Oil palm is a highly productive perennial crop whose rapid biomass accumulation has encouraged claims that plantations function as major carbon sinks. Yet such claims are scientifically incomplete unless the accounting boundary, previous land cover, soil type, plantation age, harvested carbon, non-CO₂ greenhouse gases, and value-chain emissions are made explicit. This qualitative literature review critically synthesizes peer-reviewed evidence published from 2020 to 2026 on carbon uptake and storage in oil-palm systems, with particular attention to Indonesia and Malaysia. The literature indicates that mature palms can exhibit strong photosynthetic uptake and substantial standing biomass, while young plantations may remain net carbon sources and drained peat plantations can emit large quantities of CO₂ despite vigorous palm growth. Mineral-soil plantations show more heterogeneous outcomes, including possibilities for soil-carbon recovery under improved management, whereas forest-to-oil-palm conversion creates carbon debt that cannot be inferred from plantation biomass alone. Nitrous oxide, methane, palm-oil mill effluent, fertilizer, transport and processing further alter whole-system greenhouse-gas balances. The review therefore proposes a nested accounting framework spanning plant, ecosystem, land-use-transition, value-chain and landscape-governance boundaries

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