InfoSAWIT, PAPUA – Million hectares forests in Papua are threatened because of palm oil plantation concession permits from the government. They laid on about 1,5 million hectares.
The latest study from Yayasan Pusaka Bentala Rakyat revealed that about 90% of the numbers were not cultivated yet. They are now abandoned and out of activity. The report emphasized that the regions that got permit were actually the indigenous areas where the local cultivated for hundreds of years.
Yayasan Pusaka recorded that by 2019, the government published plantation business permit for 58 palm oil plantation companies in Papua that laid on about 1,57 million hectares or equal to 23 times of DKI Jakarta. But from the permit publication, only 169.152 hectares have been developed to be palm oil plantations.
Wiko Saputra, an economist and wrote the report mentioned that there were land banking – indications in Papua. “The areas were provided through some permit mechanisms but they were not directly developed. The areas were kept and be the backup to be developed in the future,” he said, as InfoSAWIT quoted from Betahita.id, Sunday (1/9/2024). He also said the palm oil plantation permits were used as guarantees for the banks even though the areas were not cultivated yet.
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.
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. (T2)
