PALMOILMAGAZINE, PAPUA – Over 1.5 million hectares of forests in Papua are at risk due to government-issued palm oil plantation concession permits. According to a recent study by Yayasan Pusaka Bentala Rakyat, 90% of these lands remain uncultivated and abandoned.
The report highlights that many of the areas granted permits are indigenous lands where local communities have lived and farmed for centuries.
Yayasan Pusaka’s data shows that by 2019, the government had issued plantation business permits to 58 palm oil companies in Papua, covering around 1.57 million hectares, an area 23 times the size of DKI Jakarta. However, only 169,152 hectares have been developed into palm oil plantations.
Wiko Saputra, an economist and author of the report, pointed to signs of “land banking” in Papua. “These areas were granted through permit mechanisms but have not been immediately developed. The land is being held as a reserve for future development,” he said, as quoted by Palmoilmagazine.com from Betahita.id on Sunday (1/9/2024). He also noted that these plantation permits are being used as collateral for bank loans, even though the land remains undeveloped.
Wiko told some examples, PT Henrison Inti Persada (HIP). It operates in the Regency of Sorong, West Papua. The company got permits for about 32.546 hectares but only planted or developed 13.457 hectares palm oil plantations or about 41,3% of the total permit it has had. The same condition happened to PT IKS that developed 743 hectares of 37.000 hectares, and PT IKSJ that developed only 8.837 hectares of 38.000 hectares from the permits.
In the Regency of Sorong, some companies got permits but never started their operation or planting palm oil at all. Four companies do it, they are, PT Inti Kebun Lestari, PT Papua Lestari Abadi, PT Sorong Agro Sawitindo, and PT Cipta Papua Plantation with the total 105.702 hectares.
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Yayasan Pusaka also found the same things in West Papua and Southwest Papua. 24 companies got the permits with the total 548.650 hectares in the two provinces but only developed palm oil plantations about 78.152 hectares or about 14,2% of the total permits.
Wiko emphasized the abandoned areas were cut off and the remaining forests could not be cultivated by the indigenous people because some companies got the permits. “The indigenous people that wanted to go hunt or got natural materials from the forests, are forbidden to get into by the companies,” he said.
This report described the critical situation in Papua. The forests as the sources of life for indigenous people for hundreds of years, are now threatened by the unresponsible business practices. Of 1,57 million hectares that the government published the permits, the planting realization just covered 169.152 hectares. This showed the abandoned areas would potentially deliver impacts for the ecosystem and the local. (P2)
