The high global demand for oil palm products, coupled with the policies that aim to cut greenhouse gas emissions by promoting biofuels, has triggered an enormous surge in palm oil demand. At the same time there is a pressing need for better governance processes for land tenure, to provide more equitable institutional arrangements for landowner engagement with oil palm production, to address rural poverty, and to diminish the increasing number of land-related conflicts occurring during this rapid agrarian transition. Via a comparative analysis of two areas experiencing unprecedented agrarian change, this research will analyse how recently reformed governance processes can be improved to generate better pro-poor outcomes for landowners.