Comparison Oil palm suitability methodology from WRI, FAO and Hans Smith

WRI
Purposed

Indicator Used

Identification degraded land for palm oil

suitability
-

Suitability classes

Carbon and biodiversity

Land cover, Peat, Conservation Area with
buffer zone.
Soil and Water protections
Erosion risk, groundwater recharge
potential, water resource buffer.
Crop productivity
Topography (elevation, slope), climate
(rainfall), soil (depth, type, drainage,
acidity, color)
Financial viability
Size, accessibility
Zoning
Legal classification
Right
Concession permit, active plantation,
community claims/right
Land use
Land use dependence, manmade
drainage, land history,
Local interest
Community perception, community
interest in planting, political interest.

High potential, potential and not suitability.

the three suitability classes are each assigned a
number code, in which high potential = 1,
potential = 2, and not suitable = 3

FAO

Smith

Sustainable management of land

resources, Maximum potential and
agronomically attainable crop yields
for basic land resources units
- Land use
- Land utilization types
- Land
- Soil (Land evaluation, soil
mapping unit, soil type, land
charateritic, land quality) and
terrain data
- Length of growing period
(estimation of growing period
is based on a water balance
model which compares
rainfall (P) with potential
evapotranspiration (PET)
- Thermal regime
- Climate (Climatic adaptability
attributes of crops), location
(coordinates) and elevation,
precipitation, maximum daily
temperature, mean daily
temperature, minimum daily
temperature, relative
proportions of sunshine and
cloud cover by time period,
relative humidity, wind
speed, climatic hazards.

Potential of degraded land use

for sustainable palm oil
production

Very suitable(S1), suitable(S2),

moderate suitable(S3), marginal
suitable(S4), very marginal suitable
(Vms), not suitable(N)

Optimal, possible, No Data,

Constrained, not suitable

Climate (rainfall, dry

season, solar radiation,
mean temp, wind),
topography (elevation,
slope),
soil (drainage,
soiltexture, soil depth)
Productivity (Soil erotion,
soil erotion risk);
ecological (vegetation,
current vegetation)
Legal (Land
classification);
conservation (HCV 1 4)
Social (HCV 5 & 6, Land
right)

WRI
Methodology

FAO

Each indicator divided into 3 classes:

- Inventory of land use types
Landcover: Shrub/bush, savanna, open area
Land utilization types, crop
are High Potential; dryland farming, mixed
adaptability characteristics and
shrub, shrub swamp, timber plantation, estate
requirements)
crop, rice field, mining area are potential and all - Land Resource inventory
natural primary and secondary forest,
Soils and landforms, climate,
mangrove forest, dryland forest, swamp forest,
present land use and land cover,
airport, settlement, transmigration area,
administrative boundaries.
swamp, fish pond are not suitable.
Peat: No peat soil (0 cm) is High potential; Peat - Land suitability
soil of any depth (> 0 cm) is Not suitable
Agronomically attainable yields
Conservation areas with buffer zones: all
land suitability classes
areas outside of conservation areas with buffer
Potential areas, yields and
zones is high potential; all area within
production
conservation areas with buffer zones is Not
suitable.
Land suitability evaluation:
Erosion risk: Very low; low is High potential,
potential yields and matching
medium is Potential, and high;veryhigh is Not
(Overlaying)
suitable.
Groundwater recharge Potential: Very low;
low is High potential; medium is potential; high,
very high is not suitable.
Water resource buffers: All areas outside of
buffer zones is high potential; All areas within
buffer zones around the following resources:
coastline (100 m); stream (50 m); river (100 m);
spring (200 m); lake (100 m).
Elevation: < 500 m is high potential; 500
1,000 m is potential; > 1,000 m is not suitable.
Slope: < 8 percent is high potential; 830
percent is potential; > 30 percent is not
suitable.
Rainfall: 1,7506,000 mm/yr is high potential;
1,2501,750 mm/yr is potential; > 6,000
mm/yr; <1,250 mm/yr is not suitable.

Smith
-

Biophysical suitability
Degradation (Productivity
perspective,
Land availability

WRI
Soil depth: > 50 cm is high potential; < 50 cm
is not suitable.
Soil type: Silt loam; sandy clay loam; silty clay
loam; clay loam (wet & dry inceptisol; oxisol)
Sandy loam (alfisol); sandy loam, clay loam,
clay (ultisol) are high potential; Sandy clay; silt
(spodosol; entisol) are potential; Heavy clay;
sand (histosol) are not suitable.
Soil drainage: Good; moderately good are
high potential; Excessive; poor are potential;
Very excessive; very poor; stagnant are not
suitable.
Soil acidity: pH 46.5 is high potential; pH 3.5
4 and 6.57 is potential; pH < 3.5 and > 7 is not
suitable.
Financial viability: Minimum 5,000 hectares
and Accessible by road or river are priority
factor.
Legal: All legal classifications aside from
conservation
areas that were classified as not suitable and
No known active concession are legal priority
factor.
Field assessment.

FAO

Smith