Data associated with the publication "The socioecological benefits and consequences of oil palm cultivation in its native range: The Sustainable Oil Palm in West Africa (SOPWA) Project", which has been accepted for publication in "Science of the Total Environment." There are two datasets. First, findings from a systematic review of oil palm-related research in an African context. Second, field-based findings from a large-scale, field-based project in Liberia (the Sustainable Oil Palm in West Africa, 'SOPWA', Project), focussed on differences between forest and traditionally- and industrially-managed oil palm systems. SOPWA Project data include plot-based data on soil temperature (collected using iButton dataloggers), ground vegetation cover (collected using eye estimates), and canopy cover (collected using in-field photographs and subsequent processing using Adobe Photoshop). Data were analysed in R using varying statistical methods (GLMMs, GAMMs) and visualisation techniques.