Oil palm estate development and its impact on forests and local communities in West Papua: A case study on the Prafi Plain (original) (raw)
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Oil Palm and Deforestation in Papua New Guinea
An unprecedented increase in oil palm developments may be underway in Papua New Guinea (PNG) through controversial " special agricultural and business leases " (SABLs) covering over two million hectares. Oil palm development can create societal benefits, but doubt has been raised about whether the SABL developers intend establishing plantations. Here, we examine the development objectives of these proposals through an assessment of their land suitability, developer experience and capacity, and sociolegal constraints. Our review reveals 36 oil palm proposals with plantings planned for 948,000 ha, a sevenfold increase over the existing planted area in PNG. Based on our criteria , however, we estimate that only five plantations covering 181,700 ha might eventuate within the foreseeable future. We conclude that most of the developers are clearing forest with no intention of cultivating oil palm, and that a large-scale land grab is therefore occurring in PNG under the guise of oil palm development.
Positive and Negative Impacts of Oil Palm Expansion in Indonesia
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As the scale and the importance of oil palm expansion which has been creating environmental problems, but also creating economic benefits for Indonesian people become increasingly evident, as too does the need for a sound sustainable basis for future actions. This book provides a new pathway to sustain pristine forest and peatlands while maintaning economic benefits from oil palm cultivation. The study elaborate the issues, taking into accounts the challanges of economic issues, inequality of development between Java and outher islands of Indonesia, employent and the poverty reduction objective, as well as government target to reduce GHG emissions. As smallholders achieve less then 50% of the yield obtained by large estates, creating a development system that improve productivity would provide the key to poverty reduction and saving remaining forest and peatlands. In some cases large plantation and smallholdings have developed partnership that have reduces interest in opening remnan...
Forest and Society, 2021
Oil palm plantations are currently expanding to the eastern part of Indonesia, especially into West Papua province. Many oil palm permits issued in West Papua occupy intact biodiversity-rich forest areas which have essential value for indigenous Papuans' socio-cultural life. This article discusses expansion of oil palm plantations in West Papua province, and its impacts on forests and indigenous people. It also assesses whether the plantations fit the Special Autonomy Law and Sustainable Development Regulation goals of the province. In general, plantations are being established in forest areas, and further planned expansion threatens intact and biodiversity-rich forests. In addition, plantation development rarely considers the sociocultural issues of indigenous Papuans. As a result, customary rights and institutions are commonly overlooked, undermined, or violated. Oil palm plantations are not necessarily compatible with sustainable development goals, and need to reconcile its overall economic and conservation agenda.
Ecology and Society, 2012
This paper reviews the development of oil palm with linkages to biofuel in Indonesia and analyzes the associated environmental and socioeconomic impacts. We selected three plantation study sites in West Papua (Manokwari), West Kalimantan (Kubu Raya), and Papua (Boven Digoel) to assess the impacts. Research findings indicate that the development of oil palm in all three sites has caused deforestation, resulting in significant secondary external impacts such as water pollution, soil erosion, and air pollution. In terms of social impacts, many stakeholder groups, i.e., employees, out-growers, and investing households, report significant gains. However, we found these benefits were not evenly distributed. Other stakeholders, particularly traditional landowners, experienced restrictions on traditional land use rights and land losses. We observed increasing land scarcity, rising land prices, and conflicts over land in all sites. Three major trade-offs are associated with the development of oil palm plantations, including those related to biofuels: unevenly distributed economic benefits are generated at the cost of significant environmental losses; there are some winners but also many losers; and economic gains accrue at the expense of weak rule of law. To reduce the negative impacts and trade-offs of oil palm plantations and maximize their economic potential, government decision makers need to restrict the use of forested land for plantation development, enforce existing regulations on concession allocation and environmental management, improve monitoring of labor practices, recognize traditional land use rights, and make land transfer agreements involving customary land more transparent and legally binding. Ecology and Society 17(1): 25
Oil Palm With Linkages To Biofuel In Indonesia
This paper reviews the development of oil palm with linkages to biofuel in Indonesia and analyzes the associated environmental and socioeconomic impacts. We selected three plantation study sites in West Papua (Manokwari), West Kalimantan (Kubu Raya), and Papua (Boven Digoel) to assess the impacts. Research findings indicate that the development of oil palm in all three sites has caused deforestation, resulting in significant secondary external impacts such as water pollution, soil erosion, and air pollution. In terms of social impacts, many stakeholder groups, i.e., employees, outgrowers, and investing households, report significant gains. However, we found these benefits were not evenly distributed. Other stakeholders, particularly traditional landowners, experienced restrictions on traditional land use rights and land losses. We observed increasing land scarcity, rising land prices, and conflicts over land in all sites. Three major trade-offs are associated with the development of oil palm plantations, including those related to biofuels: unevenly distributed economic benefits are generated at the cost of significant environmental losses; there are some winners but also many losers; and economic gains accrue at the expense of weak rule of law.
Land Use Policy, 2020
Global land use/land cover change is dominated by the expansion of cash crops plantations, replacing natural ecosystems including forests. International trade is an important factor in this process. Increasing demand on certain crops has triggered plantation expansion and deforestation, and influence local land use in other countries (land teleconnections). Oil palm expansion is one of the most prominent examples of land teleconnections. In Indonesia, oil palm plantations area increased from 1.1 million ha in 1990 to 11.2 million ha in 2015. According to the Indonesian Law on Plantation, the indigenous people's decisions play important roles in land use decisions. This paper investigates what were the factors (drivers) determining the individual-level responses to the oil palm promises in West Kalimantan. These questions are not only important for the future of Kalimantan's rainforest but will also enrich deforestation and conservation-development discourses. We selected 49 respondents for interviews and focus groups such that people who opposed and people who supported the conversion were both well represented. Much attention was paid to arrive at a balanced set of operational variables, such as the economic resilience, agency and embeddedness of actors and the degree to which actors had appreciated and believed the oil palm promise. Data were analyzed through the QCA method. The outcomes show a perfect association of appreciation of the oil palm promises, belief in them and the decision to support the oil palm. This was not strongly associated with low economic resilience however; economically less resilient respondents could reject the oil palm conversion, while economically resilient respondents could support it. In other words, the data do not point to a poverty/ deforestation nexus. Rather, the data suggest the existence of an 'embeddedness / rejection nexus'; people that were well-connected to community, traditions and nature held long-term motivations and rejected the oil palm promise, and vice versa. More attention to this phenomenon will help bridge conservation-development objectives in Kalimantan. 1.1. Consequences The oil palm expansion in Indonesia had positive effects such as increased formal employment and district revenues (Susilo, 2004; Rist et al., 2010), but negative effects as well, such as the loss of forest cover and biodiversity and their associated ecosystem services, displacement
Realising Sustainable Oil Palm Development in Indonesia: Challenges and Opportunities
International Oil Palm Conference, 2006
"Palm oil is used in a vast range of everyday products, including soaps, chocolate bars, ice cream, ready-to- eat meals and margarine. Increasingly, it is being touted as a biofuel. Worldwide demand for palm oil has skyrocketed over the past 25 years, and oil palm plantations now cover an area of 11 million hectares.Global production of palm oil is expected to nearly double by 2020. In Indonesia, the area covered by oil palm plantations has reached almost 6 million hectares with the production is the second best to Malaysia. While oil palm production is a major source of income for Indonesia, a main producer country, bad practices in parts of the industry have also brought about high ecological and social costs. Industry growth is fuelling the rapid clearing of the most biodiverse tropical forests in the world, putting pressure on species that need these forests. Forest fires to clear land for plantations are a regular source of haze in Southeast Asia, posing serious health problems. In addition, the disregard for the rights and interests of local communities by some players within the industry has created tensions and conflicts with local communities. Many organisations around the world believe that sustainable palm oil production is the best way to meet the world’s growing palm oil needs without further damaging forests and people. The establishment of global multi-stakeholders platform known as RSPO (Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil) and the ratification of the RSPO criteria (covering e.g. aspects of high conservation value forests protection, impacts mitigation and social conflicts resolution) are crucial steps in the right direction. At the national level, various efforts incorporating various stakeholders have been initiated to balance conservation and social-economic needs through endorsing well-planned landscape and better management practices for sustainable plantation, which include forbidding high conservation value forest conversion, mitigating plantation-wildlife conflicts and resolving social conflicts. These efforts, nevertheless,need to be strengthened to result in significant positive impacts at wider scale in Indonesia. The agricultural research community that in the past has developed various tools to mitigate the negative impacts of conventional plantation practices, in collaboration with other key stakeholders, can contribute more to seek for appropriate solutions that strengthen these efforts."
Agroforestry as Policy Option for Forest-Zone Oil Palm Production in Indonesia
Land
With 15–20% of Indonesian oil palms located, without a legal basis and permits, within the forest zone (‘Kawasan hutan’), international concerns regarding deforestation affect the totality of Indonesian palm oil export. ‘Forest zone oil palm’ (FZ-OP) is a substantive issue that requires analysis and policy change. While spatial details of FZ-OP remain contested, we review literature on (1) the legal basis of the forest zone and its conversion, (2) social stratification in oil palm production (large-scale, plasma and independent growers), and (3) environmental consequences of forest conversion to FZ-OP, before discussing policy options in a range of social and ecological contexts. Policy options range from full regularization (as FZ-OP stands could meet international forest definitions), to conditional acceptance of diversified smallholder plantings in ‘agroforestry concessions’, to gradually phasing out FZ-OP and eviction/destruction. A nuanced and differentiated approach to FZ-OP i...