Elaeis guineensis Jacq. (oil palm) fluctuations in central Africa during the late Holocene: Climate or human driving forces for this pioneering species?

Abstract

The oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) is naturally abundant in all the African rain forests. Because this tree is a heliophytic, pioneering species, it can rapidly colonize the periphery of the rain forest and gaps created inside, regardless of the cause. In the majority of traditional African societies, people exploit natural oil palm groves; no attempt is made to propagate the palm by sowing or transplanting seedlings. The late Holocene phase of dramatic forest decline, around 2500 uncal. B.P., was particularly favourable to oil palm expansion. The scale and timing of this palaeoenvironmental variation, and the subsequent response of this pioneer tree, cannot be interpreted as indicating human activities, let alone an indication of cultivation.