Abstract Large-scale conversion of forest to oil palm has precipitated severe environmental impacts in the lowlands of Malaysia and Indonesia. It is a major conservation priority to ensure that projected expansion of oil palm in Africa and Latin America does not lead to analogous environmental devastation in these mega-diverse places. In an effort to minimize negative impacts from a species conservation perspective, we present a framework for spatial planning that accommodates inevitable oil palm expansion into regions of high biodiversity. Using megadiverse Colombia as an example, we investigated current and projected impacts of oil palm on threatened vertebrates (birds, mammals, and amphibians). We highlight a few areas where expansion would be detrimental to threatened fauna and should be avoided, but generally, there is minimal overlap between suitable areas for oil palm production and threatened vertebrate distributions. Our analysis demonstrates that there is room for oil palm to expand in Colombia without incurring severe conservation risks for threatened vertebrates, so long as it avoids a few high-priority areas such as la Serrania de la Macarena, the Andes-Amazon transition, the Darien, and the Tumaco forests. By applying this approach to other countries facing imminent oil palm expansion, it may be possible to meet a growing commodity demand without severely exacerbating the biodiversity crisis.

中文翻译：

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量化油棕扩张对哥伦比亚受威胁的生物多样性的影响

摘要 大规模将森林转化为油棕已经对马来西亚和印度尼西亚的低地造成了严重的环境影响。确保油棕在非洲和拉丁美洲的预计扩张不会在这些巨大的多样化地方导致类似的环境破坏是一项主要的保护优先事项。为了从物种保护的角度尽量减少负面影响，我们提出了一个空间规划框架，以适应不可避免的油棕扩张到高生物多样性地区。以生物多样性丰富的哥伦比亚为例，我们调查了油棕对受威胁脊椎动物（鸟类、哺乳动物和两栖动物）的当前和预计影响。我们强调了一些扩张会对受威胁动物群有害并且应该避免的区域，但总的来说，适合油棕生产的地区与受威胁的脊椎动物分布区之间的重叠极少。我们的分析表明，油棕在哥伦比亚有扩张的空间，而不会对受威胁的脊椎动物造成严重的保护风险，只要它避开一些高度优先的地区，如 la Serrania de la Macarena、安第斯-亚马逊过渡区、达连，和图马科森林。通过将这种方法应用于面临迫在眉睫的油棕扩张的其他国家，有可能在不严重加剧生物多样性危机的情况下满足不断增长的商品需求。只要它避开一些高优先级区域，例如 la Serrania de la Macarena、安第斯山脉-亚马逊过渡区、达里安 (Darien) 和图马科 (Tumaco) 森林。通过将这种方法应用于面临迫在眉睫的油棕扩张的其他国家，有可能在不严重加剧生物多样性危机的情况下满足不断增长的商品需求。只要它避开一些高优先级区域，例如 la Serrania de la Macarena、安第斯山脉-亚马逊过渡区、达里安 (Darien) 和图马科 (Tumaco) 森林。通过将这种方法应用于面临迫在眉睫的油棕扩张的其他国家，有可能在不严重加剧生物多样性危机的情况下满足不断增长的商品需求。