Palm Oil Plantation Project

Millions of hectares of forest on Borneo are at risk if the government proceeds with a plan to open the world's largest palm oil plantation on the island, environmental activists said.

""This plan endangers many crucial areas: the forests, the rivers and especially, the rich biodiversity in Kalimantan's forest,"" said Purwo Susanto, World Wide Fund for Nature's (WWF) official for conservation initiatives in Kalimantan during a recent media trip to West Kalimantan.

Purwo said that as oil palm plantation companies used a clear-cut system to clear land, all trees in the designated areas would have to be cut down to allow the firms to carry out the plantation process. Such methods are accelerating the deforestation problem in this country.

Kalimantan, also known as Borneo, is the third largest island on the planet after Greenland and New Guinea, and it has a vast area of tropical rainforest, which is home to several near-extinct species, such as orangutans.

According to WWF data, Kalimantan, which has 27 million hectares of forests, has suffered from serious deforestation; at a rate of 1.2 million hectares annually, while the World Bank predicts that by 2010, all of Kalimantan's lowland forests will disappear if nothing is done to curb deforestation, which is mostly caused by illegal logging and shifting cultivation.

The government has announced a plan to set up one of the largest oil palm plantations in the world, as a follow-up to an agreement signed by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and China's Prime Minister Hu Jintao in an effort to boost trade and investment activities between the two countries.

The proposed scheme, to be funded by China, is expected to cover an area of 1.8 million hectares along the 850-kilometer Indonesia-Malaysia border in the northern areas of West Kalimantan and East Kalimantan provinces.

A document made available to The Jakarta Post showed that a consortium of state-owned plantation firms, PTPN I to PTPN XIV, proposes a 1-million hectare area in West Kalimantan and another 800,000 in East Kalimantan for the planned plantations.

It also says that the scheme is estimated to attract Rp 85.14 trillion (US$8.50 billion) worth of foreign investments and would provide jobs for 182,700 people.

However, the proposed plantation areas runs through two protected areas -- Betung Kerihun National Park in West Kalimantan and Kayan Mentarang National Park in East Kalimantan, which are home to some of Kalimantan's 44 endemic mammals and over 300 new-found species, as well as home for thousands of other rare species of plants.

According to the proposal, the area in West Kalimantan covers six regencies -- Sambas, Bengkayang, Sanggau, Landak, Sintang and Kapuas Hulu -- and three regencies in East Kalimantan -- Kutai Barat, Malinau and Nunukan.

""Most of the proposed area is mountainous region that holds huge tracts of forests where 14 of the 20 major rivers in Kalimantan originate from. If the trees there are gone, it would surely threaten the lives of animals in the lower area,"" Purwo said.

When asked about the plan, deputy regent of Kapuas Hulu regency, Yoseph Alexander, said his administration was still studying whether the proposed project would benefit his people and the local environment.

""Up to now, there hasn't been any formal discussion with the government, but we are analyzing whether the scheme is suitable as seven districts in our area are located 500 meters above sea level,"" he said, adding that oil palm trees might not produce well in such highland regions.

A study carried out last year by the Bogor-based Center for International Forestry Research, concluded that the 200 sites in Kalimantan were not suitable for the cultivation of palm oil or other major cash crops, such as pepper and coffee.

""As much as we want the government to develop the border area, we care more about conserving it. Moreover, we have declared our region a conservation regency since 2003, so we have to defend that status,"" Yoseph said.

Farmers and fishermen in the border area said they opposed the plans because it would threaten the local rivers, sources of their livelihood.

""Establishing these plantations will endanger our rivers. Fertilizer used to grow the palm trees will contaminate the rivers and the lakes.""

""Moreover, the border area is a water buffer zone, which is vital for the whole of Kalimantan,"" said Hermanus Riyanto, head of Labian Village, Kapuas Hulu regency, who catches fish for daily consumption.

Secretary-General of the Indigenous People's Alliance of West Kalimantan Mina Susana Setra said that local people and NGOs opposed the idea because the government did not involve the locals in the decision-making process.

""Oil palm plantations have also changed the life of the local people, the Dayaks. Learning from experience, after the plantations were set up, the Dayaks were inundated with consumerism, alcohol, gambling and prostitution. The government never calculated these affects in their economic calculation,"" she said at a discussion with the media in Pontianak, West Kalimantan.

A spokesperson for the West Kalimantan branch of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), Yohannes R. Jemeli said that Walhi would launch a campaign to push the government to drop the planned project through national and international lobbying.

""Among other things, we will inform people of the danger of these plantations on the border area as well as lobbying European countries to refuse any kind of loans that will be used to invest in the planned plantation project,""

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Ditulis oleh William Perkasa pada tanggal Wednesday, June 11, 2008