This contribution is an intermediate product of the ANR1 research project, SPOP (Sustainable Palm Oil Production). SPOP project aims at providing scientific knowledge on the diverse oil palm cropping systems in Indonesia and Cameroon, and on their social, economic and environmental impacts. This knowledge should help identify best practices, adaptation strategies, and improvement needs towards sustainability. At this stage of the research programme, we first aimed to present the applied methodology and analyse its relevancy in light of the first field data collection.