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We explored the potential of Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM+) imagery to quantify the expansion of planted oil palm area and changes in aboveground biomass (AGB) in plantation and forest in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, from 2000 to 2008. For comparison, a classification layer derived from an Advanced Land-Observing Satellite Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (ALOS-PALSAR) Fine Beam Dual (FBD)-polarized mosaic from 2008 was used for change detection analysis. Field-measured AGB values from 85 ha of forest and oil palm plantation plots were compared with 12 vegetation indices (VIs) and four spectral mixture analysis (SMA) derivatives. Correlations against indices using optical data were higher for oil palm biomass than for forest biomass. Change detection analysis of forest conversion to oil palm plantation was performed for areas designated as protected areas …