All FSE Projects

Poverty Alleviation through Sustainable Palm Oil Production

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Researchers

Rosamond L. Naylor

Principal Investigator

Senior Fellow

William Wrigley Professor of Earth System Science
Senior Fellow, Stanford Woods Institute and Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
Professor, by courtesy, Economics
Senior Fellow and Founding Director, Center on Food Security and the Environment

Walter P. Falcon

Senior Fellow, Emeritus

Professor, Economics, Emeritus
Senior Fellow, Stanford Woods Institute

Eric Lambin

Professor, Environmental Earth Systems Science
Senior Fellow, Stanford Woods Institute

Jim Leape

Co-director, Center for Ocean Solutions
William and Eva Price Senior Fellow, Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment

Marshall Burke

Deputy Director, Center on Food Security and the Environment
Associate Professor, Earth System Science
Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
Fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment and Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research

Elsa Ordway

Earth System Science

PhD candidate, Earth System Science

Matt Higgins

Center on Food Security and the Environment

Research Staff

Hau Lee

Thoma Professor of Operations, Information and Technology, Stanford Graduate School of Business

Erica Plambeck

Charles A. Holloway Professor of Operations, Information & Technology, Stanford Graduate School of Business

Lisa Mazzocco

MBA candidate, Stanford Graduate School of Business

This project focuses on private and public sector strategies for promoting sustainable palm oil, with sustainability defined by environmental, social, and economic objectives. The main goals are:

To identify operational nodes within the palm oil value chain that can be modified to enhance rural incomes, alleviate poverty, and reduce tropical deforestation
To build capacity in palm oil producing countries through government, NGO, and private sector partnerships to help ensure a steady transition toward smallholder participation and minimal deforestation. The project will focus on three countries where oil palm is a dominant commercial crop or a rapidly emerging commercial crop: Indonesia, Ghana, and Cameroon.