Oil palm estates damage environment

Oil palm estates damage environment

Bambang Bider, Contributor, Pontianak, West Kalimantan

Kalimantan, after Sumatra, is an attractive target to world estate investors interested in oil palm estates. Over the last 15 years, world palm oil production has doubled, indicating the growing demand for this estate commodity as the material to produce cooking oil, margarine, cosmetics, soap and fodder.

Following the shrinkage of oil palm estate areas in Malaysia, Indonesia has become the second target. As one of the world's major palm oil producers, Indonesia has embarked on large-scale land reclamation for estates.

The notorious expansion of large estates here goes beyond economic interests to enter the political domain, such as the country's countertrade with Russia for the procurement of Sukhoi jet fighters. In the interior of Matan Hilir district, Ketapang regency, for instance, a local councillor has served as an estate campaigner.

A teacher, who asked not to be identified, said recently, "as a councillor he should have listened to public aspirations and mediated between the local people and companies, instead of serving as a corporate spokesman by giving instructions, applying compulsion and intimidating people."

Consequently, environmental damage in West Kalimantan has not been due merely to uncontrolled forest logging, but has been made worse by estate expansion, which covers almost half of West Kalimantan's remaining land.

According to the provincial estate office, the region's oil palm plantations totaled 290,732 hectares in 1999. With the planned expansion of estates in West Kalimantan in the period 2001 to 2005, at an annual rate of around 2,100 hectares, the extension will cover an area of 10,500 hectares in 2005.

The other, more serious problem is the disruption caused to West Kalimantan's environment and ecosystem balance. In the last few years, forest fires, flooding and river contamination by mercury, herbicides and pesticides have frequently occurred.

Research carried out by Thomas Daliman from the provincial Bela Banua Talino Institute has revealed that oil palm grown as a monoculture upsets the flora and fauna ecosystem due to an absence of plant diversity. Various animals disappear when forests turn into estates, while rats and locusts become widespread, attacking farms.

Gusti Zakaria Anshari, a lecturer at the school of agriculture, Tanjungpura University, said, as reported in the Kalimantan Review, "when land is reclaimed for oil palm estates, its trace elements are lost, to a large extent. Some day, rivers will likely be shallower, soil be no more fertile and biological diversity gone."

In a similar tone, based on a 1998 JICA study, John Bamba, director of the West Kalimantan Dayakology Institute, said, "Kalimantan is unfit for oil palm planting. Only fifteen percent of this province is suitable, but with various interests at work, the research findings have been ignored."

In addition, the entry of large estates has triggered conflict between local communities and estate investors, as a negative impact of oil palm estates in Indonesia, including West Kalimantan.

To secure the vast areas needed, estate investors usually use whatever means necessary. It is therefore common knowledge that the estate business is engaged in random forest tree felling and forced control of communal land.

For example, PT Harapan Sawit Lestari, as reported by the provincial Environmental Forum (Walhi), introduced in 1993 the concept of primary credit cooperatives to the people of Manis Mata district, Ketapang regency, by which their land had to be mortgaged to a bank.

Similar instances were also found in other remote parts of West Kalimantan, like the one involving the community of Dayak Bakati in Nyayat village, Sambas regency, whose land was seized by PT Rana Wastu to accommodate oil palm plantations. Many more such instances have remained undetected.

The impact of oil palm estate expansion on locals is considerable. Leobertus, a Nyayat resident, was once jailed for opposing estate business operation in the village. "With the existing resources already lost, how can community welfare be promoted? We can no longer go hunting and use forest products, while no more land is left for farming, making us laborers on our own land," he said.