Key findings:

• Systems informed by big data can offer compelling evidence for the smallholders. For instance, Malaysia could easily point EU policymakers and buyers to smallholder zones that have been in production (no deforestation) since 2000, 1985, 1970 and so on. For every 300,000ha of smallholder plantations found, buyers could get over one million tonnes of no-deforestation palm oil.

• Such hectarage is not hard to find. Mid-sized states like Kedah and Kelantan have about half a million hectares each of no-deforestation areas since 2000 that can be reviewed. A more detailed geo-economic study for Johor points to large no-deforestation plantation areas since 1985 (see maps).

• With 1.8 million hectares of oil palm under cultivation, Malaysian smallholders can produce six million to seven million tonnes of (largely) no-deforestation CPO, equivalent to the EU’s annual demand.

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