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.