Oil Crop Supply Chains Drive Rising Global Biodiversity Loss and Outsource Impacts to the Tropics

Quantifying how the production and trade of ten major oil crop groups drive potential long-term global species loss and shift biodiversity impacts through international supply chains.

Wang, S. · Cabernard, L. · Bruckner, M. · Ajie, M. P. · Pfister, S.

Explore the data Trace supply chains

1.5%PSLglo in 2020

+80%growth since 1995

53%outsourced via trade

75%from soybean, oil palm, coconut

Year2020

Total PSLglo1.5%

Change vs 1995+80%

PSLglo timeline from the reported annual results

1995200520152020

Global Biodiversity Impact Map

Spatially explicit biodiversity impacts (PSLglo) of oil crop cultivation at 0.05° resolution for 2020. Select a crop to see its global impact distribution.

Biodiversity Impact — PSLglo per grid cell

Low

High

1.0×

🖱️ Scroll to zoom, drag to panResolution: 0.05° (~5.5 km) • Year: 2020 • Unit: PSLglo × 10⁻⁸

Temporal Evolution (1995–2020)

How biodiversity impacts from oil crop cultivation have grown over the past quarter century, broken down by different dimensions of the supply chain.

* Only impacts tracked through supply chains are shown (accounting for ~98% of total impacts).

Supply Chain Analysis

Follow biodiversity impacts through 5 dimensions of the supply chain: crop cultivation → production regions → consumption regions → intermediate products → final uses.

* Only impacts tracked through supply chains are shown (accounting for ~98% of total impacts).

Year2020

Outsourced Biodiversity Impacts

International trade decouples consumption from production. Many countries outsource their biodiversity footprint to ecologically sensitive regions through oil crop imports.

* Only impacts tracked through supply chains are shown (accounting for ~98% of total impacts).

~0% outsourced via trade

Top Bilateral Outsourcing Flows

Production country → Consumption country (PSL_glo)

Production vs. Consumption Responsibility

DomesticOutsourced to rest of world

Drivers of Change (1995–2020)

Structural Decomposition Analysis reveals what's behind the increase — separating the effects of biodiversity impact per hectare, land use efficiency, per-capita consumption, and population growth.

* Only impacts tracked through supply chains are shown (accounting for ~98% of total impacts).

Drives increase (positive effect)Offsets increase (negative effect)Baseline / Result