• What is oil palm production in Cameroon?
  • Today oil palm cultivation and processing in Cameroon is carried out across a range of scales of production. Hereafter, we refer to mills owned and operated by agro-industrial companies as industrial mills. All other mills, referred to as non-industrial mills, vary widely in terms of design and operation.
  • Does clearing forest increase palm oil production in southwest Cameroon?
  • We found that 73% of oil palm producers in Southwest Cameroon reported clearing forest to expand cultivation, based on a survey of 546 farms. The magnitude of expansion was explained by differences in palm oil milling strategies and supply chain integration.
  • Does palm oil expansion & deforestation affect Informal mills in South Cameroon?
  • Ordway, EM., Naylor, RL., Nkongho, RN., Lambin, EF. (2019) Oil palm expansion and deforestation in Southwest Cameroon are associated with the Proliferation of informal mills. Nature Communications 10, Article no. 114. Poku, K. (2002) Small-scale palm oil processing in Africa. Vol.48. (FAO, Rome, 2002).
  • How many oil palm plantations are there in Cameroon?
  • In Cameroon, oil palm plantations cover more than 170,000 ha of national land, including 70,000 ha of industrial plantations and 100,000 ha of village plantations.
  • Is there a potential oil palm yield gap in Cameroon?
  • In Cameroon, we found that on-farm oil palm yields averaged 5¨C7 tons FFBs ha ?1 throughout the study area and across producer groups, well below the 20 tons FFBs ha ?1 potential yield for the country ( Nkongho et al., 2015 ). The large yield gap points to a major opportunity to increase production on existing oil palm fields.
  • Does non-industrial oil palm development affect primary forests in Cameroon?
  • Similarly, Ndjogui et al. (2016) found that 71% of smallholder oil palm plantations in Cameroon expanded into secondary forests, and 5% into intact forests. These findings suggest that non-industrial oil palm developments have a lesser impact on primary forests.