Beyond Carbon Stocks: Integrating Field Flux Measurements, Land-Use Histories, and Life-Cycle Evidence for Climate-Integrity Accounting in Oil Palm Systems

Abstract

Background: Carbon sequestration claims in oil-palm production frequently combine standing biomass inventories, soil measurements, local greenhouse-gas fluxes and product life-cycle estimates without comparable boundaries. Objective: This review evaluates the evidence required to distinguish carbon storage from a net atmospheric sink or verifiable climate-mitigation contribution. 

Methods: A critical qualitative literature review synthesises fifty-nine peer-reviewed journal articles published from 2020 through 
2026, using a Central Kalimantan field briefing as a problem-setting case. 

Results: Six themes emerge: carbon-pool comparability; land-use history and peat drainage; multi-gas fluxes; complementary measurement systems; management interventions; and baseline and verification integrity. The briefing illustrates a consequential 
mismatch between forest biomass-only values and plantation vegetation-plus-soil totals. High-frequency sensor transmission similarly does not independently establish accurate annual emissions.

Contribution: A six-stage Carbon Integrity Ladder links matched inventories, temporal changes, flux closure, land-use counterfactuals, life-cycle and uncertainty reconciliation, and independent governance. 

Conclusion: Credible oil-palm mitigation begins with avoiding forest and peat conversion, followed by verified reductions on existing land; individual stock measurements cannot substantiate a net-carbon-sink claim.