The Political Ecology of Oil Palm Company-Community partnerships in the Peruvian Amazon: Deforestation consequences of the privatization of rural development

•Peru’s Neoliberal development policies have supported the privatization of rural development for Amazon oil palm production.•Arrival of industrial plantations created a new mode of smallholder oil palm production: The Company-Community partnership.•Deforestation spillage out of the large plantation into surrounding farms occurred through the Company-Community partnership.•‘Partner’ smallholders deforested significantly more than their non-partner neighbours on the forest frontier.•Social unrest and environmental damage is the result of political campaigns supporting new modes of palm production.