PALMOILMAGAZINE, BANJARMASIN – According to the Forestry Agency of South Kalimantan Province, there are 67,004.97 hectares (ha) of palm oil plantations located in forest regions. Among these numbers, 36,215 ha have official permits, while 30,789 ha are considered illegal or without official permits.
Arifudin, the Head of Establishment and Forest Regions at the Forestry Agency of South Kalimantan Province, stated that the data on palm oil plantations in forest regions is based on indicative information obtained through image analysis conducted by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry.
“Tens of thousands hectares palm oil plantations in forest regions and some are without permit,” he said, as Palmoilmagazine.com quoted from Medcom, Sunday, 9 July 2023.
The forest regions cultivated covered 3.024 ha in natural sanctuary region (KSA) where 2.107 ha of the numbers are illegal; 858 ha in protected forests; and 298 ha di in limited production forests (HPT).
41.777 ha are in production forests where 18.699 ha are illegal; 21.057 ha in conversion production forests; and 9.242 ha are illegal.
Palm oil plantations in the province laid about 535.198 ha. 89 big private/government’s companies were operating with the total 427.616 ha; the smallholders’ palm oil plantations laid about 107.582 ha in 2022.
Head of Plantation and Livestock Agency South Kalimantan Province, Suparmi said some time ago that 22 palm oil plantation companies in the region have concession areas or next to forest regions.
Suparmi thought, for years, his side encouraged the companies to accomplish every issue about their permits in forest regions. Palm oil is the main plantation commodity in the province after rubber and coconut. The widest palm oil plantations are in District of Kotabaru. (T2)
