InfoSAWIT, JAKARTA – Deforestation in Indonesia happened not from palm oil plantation development. It has been running for too long. In 1970s to the early of 1980s deforestation happened for massive illegal logging which damaged many forests in Indonesia.
In the contrary, palm oil plantations which were developed in 1983 took the roles of the people to improve the surroundings and keep the forests in national scale. The people become the partners of palm oil companies until now. Every big island in Indonesia has palm oil plantation centers.
“The people’s economy in remote areas in Indonesia develops by having values from palm oil plantations,” Editorial in Chief of MMN Network, Ignatius Ery Kurniawan said to InfoSAWIT, Thursday (2/1/2023) in Jakarta.
He explained that the people’s involvement around palm oil plantations is in the form of having profession as plasma and independent smallholders, and other service. These enliven multiplier effects for sustainable economy until now. As the result, the people’s economy gets better and they have capability to conserve the nature around them.
Based on what InfoSAWIT tracked, since 2007 natural forests are not broken. The people still keep maintaining them based on their local wisdom. “From Sumatera to Kalimantan we can see the local wisdoms which develop palm oil plantations and maintain the natural forests around,” he said in his opening speech at Diskusi Sawit Bagi Negeri, the 12th Focus Group Discussion (FGD) Sawit Berkelanjutan in Jakarta.
The roles of the people as smallholders are needed and it needs to cooperate to improve palm oil cultivation based on sustainable principles and criteria that the government planned to escalate the harvest and people’s welfare,” Ery said.
He thought, the good cooperation should exist for every stakeholder in palm oil sector to realize the people’s welfare. (T1)
