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.
Tag: oil palms
Are local people conservationists? Analysis of transition dynamics from agroforests to monoculture plantations in Indonesia
Cash crops are developing in the once forested areas of Indonesia in parallel with market and economic improvements. Perennial crops such as coffee, cocoa, and rubber were first planted in estates by private or public companies. Local people then integrated these crops into their farming systems, often through the planting of agroforests, that is, intercropping the new cash crop with upland rice and food crops. The crop was generally mixed with fruit trees, timber, and other useful plants. A geographic specialization occurred, driven by biophysical constraints and market opportunities, with expansion of cocoa in Sulawesi, coffee in Lampung, and natural rubber in eastern Sumatra. However, during the past three decades, these agroforests have increasingly been converted into more productive monoculture plantations. A common trajectory can be observed in agricultural landscapes dominated by a perennial cash crop: from ladang to agroforests, and then to monoculture plantations. This process combines agricultural expansion at the expense of natural forests and specialization of the land cover at the expense of biodiversity and wildlife habitats. We determined the main drivers of agricultural expansion and intensification in three regions of Indonesia based on perception surveys and land use profitability analysis. When the national and international contexts clearly influence farmers’ decisions, local people appear very responsive to economic opportunities. They do not hesitate to change their livelihood system if it can increase their income. Their cultural or sentimental attachment to the forest is not sufficient to prevent forest conversion
Farmers’ perspectives about agroforests conversion to plantations in Sumatra: Lessons learnt fro m Bungo district (Jambi, Indonesia)
Located on the fringe of the last tropical rainforests of Sumatra, rubber agroforests are known to conserve the main ecological functions of the primary forest, including a large part of its biodiversity. Nowadays these smallholder plantations are under threat. The regular rise of natural rubber and crude palm oil prices has been a major incentive for farmers to convert their agroforests into clonal rubber and oil-palm plantations. However, some areas seem to resist conversion. A multidisciplinary approach combining perception surveys and satellite-image analysis was designed to find out the reasons for these differences. In 12 villages grouped in 3 categories according to their agroforest conversion rate between 1993 and 2005, farmers were queried about the pros and the cons of the major cropping systems, their attitude towards conservation, and how they envisaged the future of their landscape. This method enabled us to elaborate the most likely scenarios of landscape evolution for the coming years.
The effects of rural development policy on land rights distribution and land use scenarios: The case of oil palm in the Peruvian Amazon
Decades of development history show that rural agricultural policies and government support for specific en vogue crops can seriously alter land rights, land tenure regimes and land use strategies for local people in tropical forests. Today, oil palm is such a crop, and it is an emergent commodity that is proliferating in the Peruvian Amazon. This paper asks: How is government interest in promoting oil palm development affecting property rights formalization for smallholders in the Peruvian Amazon region of Ucayali, and what are the socio-ecological implications? While there are strong theoretical reasons that expect these phenomena to be related, the precise nature of their interaction has not been rigorously examined in Peru. The study analyses data from a large household survey, and three years of participant observation work in those villages to unpack how these factors interact. The paper presents descriptive results comparing smallholder claims to their formal rights, and finds a large discrepancy between de facto and de jure land ownership scenarios – especially with relation to old-growth forest fragments. Furthermore, whilst our statistical model testing qualifies our hypothesis about the link between oil palm and land right in the region at both the household and village levels, it is not a direct causal relationship. The empirical results suggest a more complex nuanced picture of how migration, oil palm expansion and development are more broadly linked to land use change in the region. We conclude with policy recommendations that could facilitate improved forest conservation in the area, and a more equitable distribution of land rights to smallholders.
Forest conversion to smallholder plantations: The impacts on soil greenhouse gas emissions and termite diversity in Jambi, Sumatra
Ongoing conversion of forests in Sumatra to agricultural lands might affect the biodiversity of soil fauna, such as termites, and emissions of nitrous oxide (N2O), methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2). To assess the impact of such forest conversions, this study was conducted in Jambi, Sumatra in an undisturbed forest (FR), a disturbed forest (DF), a one year old rubber plantation (RB1), a twenty year old rubber plantation (RB20) and an oil palm plantation (OP). The plantations belonged to smallholders and were not usually fertilized. The effect of fertilizer was assessed by applying N fertilizer and taking a series of intensive measurements. The N2O, CH4 and CO2 fluxes were measured using static chamber methods and termite species richness was assessed using a standard semi quantitative transect method. Forest conversion to smallholder plantations did not significantly affect the N2O, CH4 and CO2 fluxes, but the diversity and relative abundance of termites was decreased. this implies that the ecosystem services regulated by termites might decline. The application of N fertilizer at the conventional rate (141 kg N ha-1 y-1), with an emission factor of 3.1 % in the oil palm plantation, increased N2O emissions to twice as high as that in the undisturbed forest. The annual N2O and CH4 fluxes from termites amounted to 0.14, 0.21, 0.88, 2.47 and – 0.56 kg ha-1 y-1 N2O-N and 0.85, 1.65, 3.80, 0.97 and 2.30 kg ha-1 y-1 CH4-C in the FR, DF, RB1, RB20 and OP, respectively. Further research is needed to understand the interannual variability of the N2O, CH4 and CO2 fluxes from soils and termites. Understanding the key drivers and underlying processes which regulate them would help to control the biodiversity loss and the change of N2O, CH4 and CO2 fluxes from soils and termites.
Carbon Stocks and Soil Greenhouse Gas Emissions Associated with Forest Conversion to Oil Palm Plantations in Tanjung Puting Tropical Peatlands, Indonesia
This dissertation addresses gaps of knowledge associated with how ecosystem carbon stocks and greenhouse gas emissions are affected by land use land cover change in tropical peatlands. This was the first study that paired peat swamp forests with oil palm plantations and analyzed site scale variation on greenhouse gas emissions. This study was conducted over 16 months (September 2012 to December 2013) at Tanjung Puting, Central Kalimantan province, Indonesia. Three main objectives of this study were: 1) to quantify the total ecosystem carbon stocks and potential carbon emissions from peat swamp forest conversion to oil palm plantations; 2) to measure annual soil emissions of CO2, CH4 and N2O emissions from forests and oil palm plantations; and 3) to assess the effects of fertilizer application on nitrous oxide (N2O), carbon dioxide (CO2), and methane (CH4) emissions in the immature oil palm plantations.
Palm oil and likely futures: Assessing the potential impacts of zero deforestation commitments and a moratorium on large-scale oil palm plantations in Indonesia
Key messages
- This brief examines two contrasting policy options: the implementation of zero deforestation commitments by the private sector and a complete moratorium on the expansion of large-scale oil palm plantations, and compares them to a situation without policy action.
- The zero deforestation commitments and the moratorium on large-scale oil palm plantations expansion could reduce cumulative deforestation by 25% and 28%, respectively, compared to a situation without policy action. They could also cut greenhouse gas emissions from land use and land-use change by 13% and 16%, respectively, over the period 2010-2030.
- Even under the zero-deforestation and moratorium scenarios, Indonesia is projected to increase palm oil production between 124%-97% over 2010-2030, which is partly due to higher production originating from smallholders.
- Both measures – the zero deforestation commitments and a moratorium of future large-scale oil palm plantations expansion – would be especially beneficial to limit future deforestation in Indonesia in a context in which global demand for palm oil is expected to keep increasing.
- Foresight tools can equip stakeholders and policy makers with data and information to allow for evidence-based policy making. This will permit planning for reducing deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions, and finding options acceptable to all stakeholders involved.
Contribution of heterotrophic respiration to total soil respiration from peat swamp forest and oil palm plantations in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia
In a global carbon store, tropical peat swamp forests in Southeast Asia play an important role in future global climate change. Tropical peatlands store a huge amount of carbon in belowground ecosystem as peat soil. Conversion of peatswamp forest to oil palm plantation shifts the function of the natural state of forest from carbon sink to carbon source (Hergoualc’h & Verchot 2013). The rate of peatswamp forest deforestation in Indonesia has been higher (1.5-2.2% per year) than that of other forest types during 2000-2010 (Miettinen et al. 2012b), which mainly due to establishment of oil palm plantation on peat. Consequently, the conversion of primary peat swamp forests to oil palm plantations is believed to increase emissions of GHG especially CO2 emission into the atmosphere.
Conversion of degraded forests to oil palm plantations in the Peruvian Amazonia: Shifts in soil and ecosystem-level greenhouse gas fluxes
The expansion of oil palm (OP) plantations and associated forest clearance can significantly impact greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes. This study examined carbon stocks and soil GHG emissions (N₂O, CO₂, CH₄) in a degraded forest and a neighboring 17-year-old OP plantation in Peruvian Amazonia, where three nitrogen (N) fertilizer treatments were applied: 0 kg (OPN0), 84 kg (OPN1), and 168 kg (OPN2) per hectare per year. Carbon stocks were measured across different pools, and GHG fluxes and environmental parameters were monitored monthly over 11 months and (bi)daily during fertilizer application, with measurements taken near and far from trees/palms. Ecosystem-scale CO₂ equivalent losses were calculated by balancing carbon stock losses against N₂O emission changes. Findings showed that: (1) N₂O emissions (kg N ha⁻¹ y⁻¹) were highest in the degraded forest (6.7 ± 1.2), where litterfall N inputs were substantial (213 kg N ha⁻¹ y⁻¹). Emissions in OP plantations were significantly lower: OPN0 (0.6 ± 0.2), OPN1 (1.4 ± 0.2), OPN2 (2.3 ± 0.3). (2) Soil respiration (Mg C ha⁻¹ y⁻¹) was 1.4 times higher in the forest (9.1 ± 0.6) compared to OP plantation treatments (OPN0: 7.3 ± 1, OPN1: 5.5 ± 0.5, OPN2: 6.5 ± 0.3). (3) The forest acted as a CH₄ sink (-1.5 ± 0.3 kg C ha⁻¹ y⁻¹), whereas all OP treatments were sources (OPN0: 0.2 ± 0.3, OPN1: 0.7 ± 0.5, OPN2: 0.2 ± 0.4). (4) Carbon stock losses from forest-to-OP conversion were significant (196.8 ± 44.0 Mg CO₂ ha⁻¹ over 15 years) but were partially offset (14–20%) by reduced N₂O emissions. These findings highlight the complex GHG trade-offs associated with OP expansion, reinforcing the need for complementary studies to enhance global GHG assessments.
Integrating the Theory of Change (TOC) and Jurisdictional Approach (JA) in preparing a sustainable palm oil action plan in Indonesia
The Jurisdictional Approach (JA) is an integrated landscape approach that is used within the administrative boundaries of the government. This approach can be used to encourage sustainable palm oil while promoting regional success in reducing deforestation. The project of scaling jurisdictional approaches in the Indonesian palm oil sector involves a multi-stakeholder, participatory, and gender-inclusive approach. JA can be integrated with Theory of Change (TOC) through workshops and focus group discussions to identify key issues at the regency level related to sustainable palm oil practices, especially regarding the implementation of Presidential Instruction Number 6 of 2019 concerning the National Action Plan for Sustainable Palm Oil Plantations. The objective of this paper is to examine the integration of TOC and JA in the preparation of a regional action plan for sustainable palm oil in Indonesia and to highlight the practical instances of how the integrated approaches enable significant promotion and generate meaningful collaboration between key players involved in advancing the preparation of a regional action plan for sustainable palm oil in Indonesia.
The integrated TOC and JA effectively heard the voices and interests of stakeholders in a participatory manner, understood the local context and issues, defined the problems to be addressed, formulated objectives, articulated the changes expected to be achieved, and established collaboration among different sectors to achieve sustainable palm oil practices at the jurisdictional level. TOC supports JA by articulating causal linkages between interventions and their desired effects and identifying three common types of theories of change: causal chain, dimensions of influence, and actor-centered theories.