PALMOILMAGAZINE, JAKARTA – PT Astra Agro Lestari Tbk. (AALI) is a palm oil plantation company in Indonesia, established in 1988. Over the years, PT AAL has expanded its palm oil operations across Sumatra, Kalimantan, and Sulawesi. However, the company’s success has been marred by controversies related to the encroachment of its plantations into forested areas.
A study conducted by Yayasan Genesis Bengkulu found that 19 of PT AAL’s plantation concessions overlap with forested regions, totaling approximately 20,555.37 hectares. This raises concerns about the impact on various forest ecosystems, including protected forests, sanctuaries, permanent production forests, and limited production forests.
In 2015, 14 subsidiaries of PT AAL began palm oil cultivation covering about 4,352.99 hectares within forested areas. By 2023, this encroachment continued, with 10 subsidiaries expanding their plantations by an additional 554 hectares. These actions highlight a significant portion of plantation expansions occurring within forested areas, suggesting a violation of regulations.
Also Read: Walhi and FoE Discover Six Weaknesses in Astra Agro Independent Report
The overlapping palm oil plantations with protected forests cover approximately 2,071.67 hectares, with sanctuaries spanning about 52.94 hectares, permanent production forests comprising 10,092.83 hectares, limited production forests totaling 313.11 hectares, and conserved production forests reaching 8,024.82 hectares. These encroachments are observed in Riau, South Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, West Sulawesi, and Central Sulawesi provinces.
Even though the forests are conversed production forests and could be conversed to be plantations if there are permits, but palm oil plantations in forest areas that PT AAL cultivated could be illegal and could not be changed to other land use (permit).
In 2023, Genesis recorded 8 subsidiaries of PT AAL continued planting (palm oil) plantations in forest areas that were not permitted, such as, protected forests, limited production forests, and permanent production forests. Besides, the organization found that deforestation took place in forest areas next to plantation concession areas of PT AAL. The total deforestation since 2015 to 2023 laid about 12.970,30 hectares.
Also Read: FOE Rejected Investigation that Astra Agro Lestari Did
In response to the accusation, PT AAL through its official information on Wednesday 17 April 2024 noted that the company and two subsidiaries have been operating and obeying every available regulation in Indonesia. Besides, PT AAL has published Sustainability Policy since 2015 and ever since, the company never and has no plan to get new planting.
“We are sorry for Yayasan Bengkulu Genesis for publishing the research result by Milieudefensie – Friend of The Earth (FoE) in December 2023 (page 2 on the foot note) about deforestation that had something to do with PT AAL only by using available public data without having data confirmation from PT AAL,” the information from the company, noted.
PT AAL continued that the company successfully identified limited sources of data used and explained in the research. This could deliver different output significantly from the real condition, for instance, Yayasan Genesis Bengkulu just used peta atlas nusantara and peta bidang tanah published by Spatial and Land Agency/National Land Agency as the sources of data in deforestation research that the organization accused PT AAL. Yayasan Bengkulu Genesis delivered explanation that data published by the government about business rights is not for public.
The two illustrations may seem that the organization did not apply the official business rights data/location permits of the subsidiaries of PT AAL that the Government of Indonesia published. Business rights would be the basic one to re-study overlapping areas between forests areas and business rights/palm oil plantation business permits. “Without verified business rights data/location permits, the results of the study could be wrong,” the official information published by PT AAL, noted. (T1)
