PALMOILMAGAZINE, BENGKULU Over the past 22 years, the natural forest canopy in Bengkulu Province, once celebrated as the Paradise of Rafflesia, has significantly diminished. Genesis Bengkulu attributes this decline primarily to the conversion of land into palm oil plantations.
According to Mapbiomas data, Indonesia’s forest canopy covered approximately 112.388.631 hectares in 2000, but by 2022, it had narrowed to 105.876.146 hectares—a reduction of about 5.8% over the two decades.
Data from MapBiomas Indonesia 2.0 in 2022 revealed that Bengkulu Province’s forests have transformed into non-forest areas, including non-forest plants, palm oil plantations, paddy fields, wood plants, other agricultural activities, mining, and other non-vegetated areas, totaling approximately 154,990.25 hectares.
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The details showed that non-forest regions in 2000 laid on about 142.107,10 hectares, and in 2022 they got wider to be 154.990,25 hectares. It means non-forest regions increased by about 12.883,15 hectares in 22 years. Meanwhile, natural forests and mangroves in Bengkulu in 2000 laid on about 781.787,62 hectares, and in 2022 they were laid on to be 768.905,20 hectares. This means the natural forests in the province got narrower—about 12.882,42 hectares—in 22 years.
As Palmoilmagazine.com quoted from Betahita, Director of Genesis, Egi Saputra, was sorry for the fact that the natural forest canopy keeps getting narrower every year while palm oil plantation canopy in forest regions gets wider in numbers. Egi also told me that in the past 22 years, the areas that were changed to be palm oil plantations, which lay on about 17.359,55 hectares, escalated from 10.437,43 hectares to 27.796,98 hectares in 2022.
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It needs to supervise and enforce laws in the forestry sector. He said that palm oil plantations, which are developing in many forest regions, still operate. This is serious because the Ministry of Environment and Forestry emphasized that palm oil is not a forest plant. According to Regulation P.23/2021 of the Minister of Environment and Forestry, palm oil is not categorized as a forest or area rehabilitation plant.
In a focus group discussion by Jaringan Pemantauan Independen Kehutanan (JPIK), Sub Coordinator of Forest Protection, Environment, and Forestry Agency Bengkulu Province, Jhoni Hendri was afraid of business rights discrepancies with the width that should be and the obscurity of the forest boundary because of the people’s movement. (T2)
