Beneath the Canopy: Rethinking Soil Carbon Sequestration, Greenhouse Gas Balances, and Regenerative Sustainability in Indonesia’s Oil Palm Plantations
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.59890/ijgsr.v4i10.5Keywords:
Soil Organic Carbon, Oil Palm, Carbon Sequestration, Regenerative Agriculture, Greenhouse Gas Balance, Peatlands, Land-Use Change, Soil Health, Carbon Verification, IndonesiaAbstract
Oil palm combines high photosynthetic productivity with disputed greenhouse gas consequences, creating a need to distinguish canopy carbon uptake from durable soil carbon sequestration. This qualitative literature review critically synthesises 57 peer-reviewed journal articles published in 2020–2026. The review integrates evidence on primary production, soil organic carbon stocks and depth distribution, microbial–mineral stabilisation, plantation replanting, residue recycling, peatland hydrology, land-use history, and verification governance. Results indicate that productive mature plantations may exhibit favourable short-term carbon exchange while conversion losses, harvested-carbon exports, and peat oxidation can dominate broader boundaries. Soil carbon responses to plantation age and regenerative management are context-dependent; darker deep-soil horizons are not sufficient proof of an increased carbon stock. Empty fruit bunch recycling, understory cover, and ecological enrichment offer site-specific opportunities, whereas rewetting and conservation require distinct peatland strategies. The study proposes a carbon stewardship–full-boundary accounting–landscape integrity framework and a tiered monitoring, reporting, and verification pathway. Its central recommendation is to protect forests and peat ecosystems, improve existing plantations through measured interventions, and restrict carbon-removal claims to additional, durable, independently assessed outcomes
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