InfoSAWIT, OSLO – The Professor of Faculty of Forestry, Institut Pertanian Bogor (IPB), Prof. DR. Yanto Santosa explained that palm oil is not the direct cause of deforestation in Indonesia. Looking back to the history of degraded areas in Indonesia, he said that the conversion of palm oil plantations happened for the illegal logging or fire in the forests.

He also mentioned that the area conversion for the economic interest and food security is normal, namely in the developing countries, such as, Indonesia.

It started from the success of transmigration program and urged the forest conversion and functional changing of tropical forests to be the food plantation areas, such as, paddy.

“In 1980s the government encouraged the stakeholders and wood industries to increase the productivity of the degraded forests,” Prof. Yanto said when describing his study in the seminar in Oslo, Norway, in the official statement to InfoSAWIT recently.

As a matter of fact, the peak of deforestation happened in 1950-1985 and 1985-2000 reaching about 42 million hectares and 16 million hectares for each period. The area expansion for palm oil plantations just reached 1 million hectares and 3 million hectares in the same period.

The other interesting fact is that the area conversion for palm oil plantation up to 2010 reached about 8 million hectares; 5,5 million hectares were from the agricultural and abandoned areas conversion while 2,6 million hectares were from the production forest conversion.

“The other historical proof showing palm oil was not the direct cause of deforestation in Indonesia was that the start of enlarging plantation in North Sumatera in 1863. The first commodity planted in the period was tobacco, not palm oil. It was the main trade commodity to Europe,” Prof. Yanto said. (T2)