The Biodiversity and Ecosystem Function in Tropical Agriculture (BEFTA) Programme currently focusses on two large-scale experimental projects investigating the impacts of different oil palm management practices on biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and yield.
The first, the Understory Vegetation Project, was established in 2012 and has experimentally manipulated understory complexity in established oil palm plantations.
The second project, the Riparian Ecosystem Restoration in Tropical Agriculture (RERTA) Project started in August 2016. It is experimentally assessing the potential for restoring forest in riparian margins in established oil palm plantations during the replanting process.