Data collection

Secondary data
The main available spatial and statistical information has been collected with regard to oil palm development in the different countries comprising the oil palm sentinel landscapes. Information covers four main different areas of interest, which are: the biophysical attributes of the landscape (e.g. soils, temperature, vegetation); land use and land tenure (including deforestation trends); production and processing (e.g. volume, prices, processing capacity, markets); and infrastructure (e.g. roads, mills). Researchers are still in the process of systematizing this information, which is relatively uneven depending on the country. More complete statistical datasets are available for Indonesia, Malaysia and Colombia.

Primary data
Data at the household level has been collected through fieldwork undertaken in three locations in Colombia (north, central and east), San Martin and Ucayali in Peru, and two locales in eastern Sabah, Malaysia (Lormalong and Apas Balung). In Cameroon, household data has been collected in four major palm oil producing basins: Eseka, Dibombari, Muyuka, and Mundemba-Lobe. Additional data is being collected among independent smallholders in the Sanaga Maritime. Additional data is still in the process of being collected in east Kalimantan (Berau district) and west Kalimantan (Kapuas Hulu) in Indonesia.
Primary data collection has been carried out with the use of a standardized protocol that was designed for this purpose, and has been adjusted to the local realities in each landscape. The questionnaire used includes requests for information on household demography, land assets and land use, oil palm production and labor, farm and domestic assets, income and remittances, credit, planting materials, and perceptions about oil palm. Additional qualitative information has been collected in all the different mentioned locales through the use of focus groups, and interviews with key informants.