InfoSAWIT, SAMARINDA – East Kalimantan Province, as one biggest palm oil producer in Indonesia, would keep reinforcing its commitment to the sustainable environment by establishing high conservation value areas (HCVA). It would be significant to conduct integrated discussion about the formulation of the 2024 – 2030 roadmap for HCVA in the province to realize the goals.
The province also massively played its role in national scale palm oil industries with the production about 4,22 million tons in 2023, equal to 8,98% of the total palm oil production in Indonesia. The province would balance the roles of economy by having and implementing sustainable environment. “Palm oil plantations are significant for the economy. East Kalimantan Province consistently moves forward heading to sustainable plantation by saving HCVA,” Secretary in duty of East Kalimantan Plantation Agency, Andi Sidik, that represented Head of Plantation Agency East Kalimanta, E. A. Rafiddin Rizal, said, as in the official statement to InfoSAWIT, Saturday (21/9/2024).
In the discussion that many government’s representatives, plantation associations, independent planters, and developer partners attended, Andi said that the province has published HCVA indicative map through the Decision of East Kalimantan Governor in 2020 that would lay on about 456.827 hectares. Of the total numbers, 60% or about 270.520 hectares were officially decided through the decisions of regents. “We do hope, the 40% of the areas would be deciding the HCVA areas definitively,” he said.
The Governor’s Regulation Number 12 / 2021 mandated the companies to identify, cultivate, and monitor HCVA in their concession areas. The regents should do the same out of the companies’ concession areas but until 2024, some companies do not report their work to maintain HCVA and the new planting still happens.
Sustainable Palm Oil Development Manager of Yayasan Konservasi Alam Nusantara (YKAN), Yohannes Ryan emphasized it would be significant to get the same agreement to increase the indicative status of HCVA to be the definitive areas. “We would do the best to make sure that HCVA would be always protected and conserved sustainably,” he said.
Chairman of Forum Sustainable Plantation Communication East Kalimantan Province, Yus Alwi Rahman said that the establishment of HCVA has started since 2015 and East Kalimantan Province would be committed to be always the pioneer in sustainable plantation cultivation in Indonesia.
The establishment and protection about HCVA would be the key for palm oil products from the province to compete in many countries by qualifying the sustainable standards, such as, Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil and Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil certificates. (T2)
