What is Land Conversion?

On the island of Sumatera, oil palm is spreading over forests and displacing rubber plantation. Hevea brasiliensis was introduced in Jambi province at the beginning of the 20^th century, progressively replacing swidden rice cultivation with agro forest (Feintrenie & Levang, 2009; Joshi et al., 2002).

These rubber agroforests are smallholder plantations combining rubber trees with useful species of timber and fruit trees, or handicraft material such as rattan and bamboo (Beukema et al., 2007; De Foresta, 2008; Lehebel-Peron et al., 2010; Rasnovi et al., 2006)