In a controversial speech, Indonesia’s new president argued oil palm plantations are like forests, calling for his or her enlargement by stating, ‘oil palms are bushes … they’ve obtained leaves.’”
Environmental activists and specialists have criticised President Prabowo Subianto’s remarks made at a nationwide growth convention held in Jakarta on Dec. 30. They are saying this narrative downplays the scientific proof concerning the position of oil palm plantations in driving deforestation, biodiversity loss and carbon emissions.
“Saying that palm oil is a forest crop is so dangerous as a result of it looks like we don’t perceive the distinction between forests and plantations,” stated Herry Purnomo, a senior scientist on the Heart for Worldwide Forestry Analysis (CIFOR) and a professor on the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB). “Cassava and grass additionally take in carbon dioxide. All crops which have inexperienced leaves take in carbon dioxide.”
Herry advised Mongabay that Prabowo’s statements got here throughout as an try to defend Indonesia’s palm oil trade, the world’s greatest, from criticisms over its environmental impacts, notably from international nations like members of the European Union.
Prabowo referenced these criticisms in his speech when he referred to as for the enlargement of oil palm plantations.
“And I feel sooner or later, we additionally must plant extra palm oil. We don’t should be afraid of endangering — what’s it referred to as — deforestation, proper?” he stated.
“Oil palms are bushes, proper? They’ve leaves, proper?” he went on. “They produce oxygen, take in carbon dioxide. So why are we being accused [of deforestation]? These issues they stated [about deforestation] don’t make any sense.”
Herry stated this was an oversimplification of the difficulty that would gas higher environmental degradation and land conflicts, undermining Indonesia’s world local weather commitments.
“If we defend palm oil blindly and not using a scientific foundation, different nations will blindly accuse us as effectively. They may understand all palm oil [produced in Indonesia] to be coming from deforestation,” he stated.
Palm oil is one in every of seven commodities that shall be subjected to the EU’s new antideforestation regulation, or EUDR, when it comes into impact on the finish of 2025. The EUDR mandates strict traceability and sustainability for imports of those commodities into the EU market.
By downplaying environmental criticisms, Indonesia might face backlash from markets just like the EU that demand the merchandise they purchase are sustainable, Herry stated. Tellingly, the Ministry of Forestry below Prabowo, who took workplace in October 2024, has modified its emblem from a sacred bodhi tree to a tree that resembles an oil palm.
Not comparable
Whereas it’s true that oil palm plantations retailer carbon, they’re nowhere close to as efficient because the forests they changed.
Clearing a plot of standing forest to ascertain a palm plantation releases extra CO2 than will be sequestered by rising oil palms on the identical plot, research have proven. So whereas a brand new oil palm plantation could develop quicker and sequester carbon at the next annual charge than a naturally regenerating forest, it’s going to nonetheless find yourself storing much less carbon than leaving the unique forest standing.
Carbon losses are even higher when the plantation is established on peatlands, which retailer huge quantities of carbon of their soil, which is drained to organize the land for planting.
“Forests retailer round 300 tons of CO2 per hectare, 10 instances greater than oil palm plantations,” Herry stated.
And by taking a look at simply carbon absorption, Prabowo is actually downplaying the ecological harm brought on by oil palm plantations, together with deforestation, biodiversity loss and carbon emissions from land clearing and peatland destruction, he added.
The enlargement of oil palm plantations has been a serious driver of deforestation in Indonesia over the previous 20 years, accounting for one-third of Indonesia’s lack of old-growth forest — an space of three million hectares (7.4 million acres), or half the scale of Belgium.
And knowledge from CIFOR present that oil palm plantations had been the biggest contributor to deforestation in Indonesia between 2021 and 2022, leading to annual greenhouse fuel emissions of 200 million metric tons. This coincided with the fast enlargement of oil palm plantations in Indonesia to satisfy rising world demand.
As we speak, palm oil is essentially the most extensively used vegetable oil on the planet, present in round half of all packaged merchandise offered in supermarkets, from processed meals to cosmetics. It’s additionally utilized in animal feed and, more and more, biofuels.
Palm oil enlargement has additionally been linked to biodiversity loss as oil palm plantations help far fewer species than do forests and infrequently additionally fewer than different tree crops.
Oil palm cultivation already threatens not less than 193 species listed as critically endangered, endangered or susceptible, based on the IUCN, the worldwide wildlife conservation authority. It’s performed a serious position within the decline in species akin to orangutans and tigers, the IUCN famous.
These are all issues that Prabowo ought to perceive as president, stated Uli Arta Siagian, plantations lead on the Indonesian Discussion board for the Surroundings (Walhi), the nation’s greatest inexperienced NGO.
“What’s shocking is that the assertion of palm oil not inflicting deforestation as a result of it has leaves was made by the president, who ought to have spoken primarily based on science, information, analysis and info,” she stated.
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If we defend palm oil blindly and not using a scientific foundation, different nations will blindly accuse us as effectively. They may understand all palm oil [produced in Indonesia] to be coming from deforestation.
Herry Purnomo, senior scientist, Heart for Worldwide Forestry Analysis
Future risk
If Indonesia continues to broaden its oil palm plantations in forested areas, as Prabowo referred to as for in his speech, the nation might lose massive swaths of its remaining rainforests, successfully reversing the latest development of declining forest loss within the nation, stated Andi Muttaqien, govt director of Indonesian environmental and human rights advocacy group Satya Bumi.
Simply inside present oil palm concessions, there are nonetheless 2.4 million hectares (5.9 million acres) of intact forest; these could possibly be misplaced if palm oil enlargement within the nation is left unchecked.
The trade’s enlargement past present concessions can also be prone to push threatened species nearer to extinction. In accordance with the IUCN, 39 per cent, 54 per cent and 64 per cent respectively of all threatened amphibians, mammals and birds are set to be affected by future enlargement of the trade.
Additional enlargement additionally poses a risk to human security by elevating the danger of pure disasters. A 2024 examine discovered that clearing of forests for oil palm plantations can enhance flooding danger and water contamination for downstream communities as a result of the crop, particularly when it’s younger, is nowhere close to nearly as good at retaining water because the forest bushes it changed.
For these and different causes, environmentalists have lengthy referred to as on the federal government and the trade to give attention to growing the yields of present plantations moderately than persevering with to broaden into forested areas.
That is notably necessary as there’s already too many plantations in Indonesia to the purpose that the trade virtually exceeded the nation’s environmental capability.
Latest analysis by Satya Bumi and the NGOs Sawit Watch and Madani Berkelanjutan estimated that the utmost extent of oil palm plantations that Indonesia can host with out doing additional catastrophic harm to the surroundings is eighteen.15 million hectares (44.8 million acres).
The present planted space is 17.3 million hectares (42.7 million acres), or virtually at that restrict, Andi stated.
“These findings are necessary [when you] keep in mind that the palm oil trade in Indonesia has been increasing an excessive amount of up to now 20 years,” he stated. “If the event of the palm oil trade is left unchecked, there shall be huge ecological and financial loss.”
Tarnished picture
Specialists warn that Prabowo’s remarks additionally danger undermining Indonesia’s credibility in worldwide local weather negotiations, because the nation’s management could seem out of contact with world priorities in tackling local weather change.
This might jeopardise billions in inexperienced investments and palm oil exports to markets just like the EU that demand sustainability.
“Our local weather dedication to the world the place we [have pledged to] scale back emissions could possibly be threatened,” Sawit Watch govt director Achmad Surambo stated as quoted by native media.
Eddy Martono Rustamadji, chair of GAPKI, the nation’s primary palm oil enterprise affiliation, welcomed Prabowo’s name to broaden oil palm plantations. He steered such an enlargement ought to be geared toward assembly home demand for packages like the federal government’s biofuel initiative.
“If [an expansion us] accomplished, then it ought to be tasked to state-owned enterprises in order that there’s no notion that the personal sector will maintain increasing the scale of palm oil plantations,” he stated as quoted by native information.
As for considerations over deforestation, Eddy stated there ought to be no fear if the enlargement is completed in areas categorized as degraded or not forested.
Herry of CIFOR agreed, saying that any future enlargement of palm oil plantations ought to ideally be accomplished on nonforested lands, of which there are round 3 million hectares.
Danger of conflicts
However even when new plantations are established on nonforested lands, there are nonetheless dangers of conflicts with native and Indigenous communities residing in these areas, Surambo stated. It’s because the federal government typically perceives these state-owned lands as vacant, disregarding the truth that there could already be communities residing there for generations, he stated.
“If we go to Papua [Indonesia’s easternmost region], practically all [the land is] Indigenous territory,” Surambo stated. “[So] it’s not smart to broaden [plantations]. We’ll create social conflicts. What’s real looking is to accentuate [production on existing plantations].”
Dangers of conflicts are particularly heightened as Prabowo, in his speech, instructed officers to “defend oil palm plantations all over the place,” describing them as “nationwide property.” This then prompts authorities, together with safety forces, to interpret this as a mandate to prioritise company pursuits over environmental and human rights considerations, Walhi’s Uli stated.
Consequently, activists and communities protesting land grabs, deforestation or Indigenous rights violations might face heightened scrutiny, harassment, and even criminalisation below the pretext of defending financial pursuits.
Even earlier than Prabowo’s remarks, safety forces have generally been deployed to suppress protests, intimidate native communities and implement evictions tied to palm oil enlargement, Uli identified. The trade is a serious contributor to land conflicts in Indonesia: of the 108 land conflicts recorded associated to plantations in 2023, 88 concerned oil palm plantations, based on knowledge from the Consortium for Agrarian Reform (KPA).
“That’s why it’s not a stretch for us to suppose that this instruction will legitimise the method of militarised enforcement in palm oil plantations,” Uli stated. “This can enhance instances of intimidation, violence and criminalisation in opposition to individuals.”
With heightened dangers of land conflicts and deforestation from future enlargement of plantations, CIFOR’s Herry urged Prabowo to not neglect that he’s the chief of all Indonesians, together with those that wish to defend the nation’s remaining forests.
“Individuals who help forest conservation are additionally the residents of Indonesia, led by Prabowo, not solely those that work in plantations,” he stated. “So we have to discover stability between forest conservation and plantation productiveness.”
This story was printed with permission from Mongabay.com.
