Project Highlights
Funders
Ferrero TRADING LUX S.A.
Partners
This work was led by the SAN Secretariat in partnership with CABI, UPM, and Wild Asia—combining SAN’s field-tested methodology with Malaysia-based scientific and implementation expertise.
Implementation dates
July 2020
-
December 2024
Commodities
Oil palm
Beneficiaries
Malaysian oil palm smallholders and plantations (better IPM, lower costs), local technicians (train-the-trainer skills), supply-chain buyers (stronger biodiversity and pesticide-risk performance), and surrounding ecosystems through enhanced habitat for beneficial insects.
About the project
Over four years, SAN and Malaysian partners CABI, UPM, and Wild Asia identified six native plant species that significantly boost the diversity and abundance of beneficial insects—assassin bugs, parasitic flies, and parasitoid wasps—forming a practical conservation biological control strategy for oil palm. In parallel, the team analyzed less-toxic alternatives to highly hazardous pesticides and trained two smallholder groups on safer use and accurate dosage. In 2024, the smallholder model was successfully adapted to a plantation setting—timely given that defoliating insects can cut yields by up to 50%. By enhancing understory vegetation and maximizing edge habitats with native species, the project supports natural pest control and can help lower weeding costs; experimental plant beds hosted markedly more beneficial insect families and overall beneficial insect diversity than traditional (often exotic) edge plants.
Outcomes
This research launched a program to help palm oil producers enhance biodiversity, create habitat for beneficial insects, and cut reliance on synthetic pesticides. In 2022, the team identified best-in-class native species for propagation and confirmed the potential of plants growing naturally under the oil palm canopy to support beneficial insect populations. Those insights are shaping the next phase and adding to the evidence for flower strips and understory management as practical biodiversity tools in palm systems. In 2023, the work scaled by developing a toolkit of nature-based solutions drawn from smallholder pilots and replicating the concept in a medium-sized state. To enable adoption, SAN produced a visual guide to ecological networks, an economic decision model on the benefits of IPM and biological controls, and training programs—both a train-the-trainer course for Malaysian technicians (toxicity, risk mitigation, IPM, safe use, and cascade methods) and hands-on instruction for smallholders on technically correct pesticide use.