Protected riverbank habitats within areas of oil palm cultivation can play a key role in reducing the negative impacts on tropical bird numbers but need to be increased in size, new research from DICE has shown.<\/p>\n
Converting rainforests to oil palm plantations has\u00a0well-documented impacts on tropical wildlife, including birds. But so far there has been little research on the value natural vegetation in river areas in plantations has for nature, although these are often preserved for water management as\u00a0\u2018riparian reserves\u2019. However, a new study led by DICE, in partnership with Universiti Malaysia Sabah, demonstrates that\u00a0riparian areas can help to lessen the negative impacts of oil palm cultivation\u00a0on bird communities.<\/p>\n
The team counted birds across 28 rivers at a site in Malaysia and were able to examine their findings in relation to the width of the protected forest alongside the rivers. The study showed that\u00a0large riparian reserves tend to support more bird species, with the largest ones hosting a similar number as nearby forests. Overall, the researchers found that a single river site might support around a third of all the bird species found in adjacent forests.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, the authors were able to show\u00a0that the best rivers for protecting bird populations in oil palm areas had more than 40 metres of forest vegetation\u00a0protected on each bank, which helped provide shelter and resources for the birds. However,\u00a0to ensure all the forest-dependent bird species were represented, the width of this protected riparian area would need to be\u00a0at least\u00a0100 metres on\u00a0each\u00a0bank.<\/p>\n
Lead author Simon Mitchell<\/a> said the findings underlined the potential to protect some bird species within landscapes affected by palm oil cultivation. “We show that even small increases to the width could lead to big improvements for birds. This could be really important if we are to find better ways of maintaining biodiversity in agricultural landscapes.”<\/p>\n The researchers hope their findings will\u00a0lead to oil palm companies increasing the width of riparian reserves protected in new plantations or restoring more vegetation in old ones. Stricter environmental policies in tropical producer countries could also help improve the protection of riparian reserves.<\/p>\n The findings have been published\u00a0in the\u00a0Journal of Applied Ecology\u00a0<\/em>under open access entitled\u00a0Riparian reserves help protect forest bird communities in oil palm dominated landscapes<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"