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http://www.wri.org/print/11669
By Beth Gingold on July 13, 2010 A new policy to develop oil palm on degraded land could protect Indonesias forests. But what does degraded really mean? In May 2010, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono declared a policy to develop oil palm plantations on degraded land instead of forest or peatland. As part of national REDD+ strategy to be developed under a groundbreaking $1 billion partnership with Norway, this policy has the potential to allow the palm oil industry to continue to expandgenerating profits, government revenues, and jobswhile reducing greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.
Although questions remain regarding the details of Indonesias strategy to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+), the Indonesian government has recently suggested that there are 6 million hectares of degraded land (an area larger than the Indonesian province of Aceh) that could be used for oil palm expansionenough to achieve the countrys national target of doubling palm oil production by 2020 without additional deforestation. Whether the expansion of oil palm plantations on degraded land is sustainable will depend largely on how important detailssuch as the meaning of degradedare addressed during implementation.
Members of the POTICO field team surveys a tract of degraded land in West Kalimantan province as part of a process to identify areas potentially suitable for sustainable oil palm plantation expansion. (Photo credit: Sekala)
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Both industry and civil society groups are concerned that the location and status of the degraded areas referred to by the partnershipparticularly from a social and legal standpointare unclear. Meanwhile, REDD+ policy-makers and environmental NGOs are concerned that allowing the conversion of degraded secondary forests could result in significant carbon emissions as well as lost co-benefits such as biodiversity preservation. In addition, there is a significant and growing consensusas reflected by growing industry participation in the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and in recent government statementsregarding the need to balance environmental, economic, and social concerns in order to ensure that the expansion of oil palm plantations is truly sustainable. This would include, but would not be limited to, whether an area is degraded from a forest carbon perspective. A major challenge facing national REDD+ policy-makers and decision-makers at all levels is a lack of a common methodologyand the associated accurate and up-to-date spatial datafor identifying acceptable areas for sustainable oil palm plantation expansion.
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Figure 1. Screening Criteria for Identifying Acceptable Areas for Sustainable Oil Palm Expansion
These screening criteria are applied in a multi-step process consisting of a desktop analysis followed by field visits to assess individual sites (Figure 1). The desktop analysis uses relevant spatial data based on satellite information, aerial imagery, and other sources to assess factors that can be measured and mapped objectivelysuch as carbon content. Field work is required to verify the results of the desktop analysis and assess factors that can only be determined on a site level, especially those related to social acceptability. WRI and Sekala recently applied this method to develop a map identifying potentially acceptable areas for sustainable oil palm plantation expansion in the province of West Kalimantan (Figure 2). This map was used to guide field assessments of over two dozen potential sites. This experience has shown that a process to determine whether or not an area is acceptable for sustainable oil palm expansion should consider that: Environmental acceptability can be assessed and mapped using a combination of satellite data, aerial imagery, and on-the-ground field visits. However, available spatial data is currently not sufficiently accurate to confidently identify areas that are environmentally suitable without field verification.
Economic viability will vary between oil palm growers. Government officials can use screening criteria to generate maps of areas where it is possible to grow oil palm with reasonable yields based on climate, topography, and soil type. However, private companies will require additional informationsuch as proximity to infrastructure, the location of their existing operations, and millsto determine which of these areas meet company-specific requirements for viability. Social desirability needs to be determined through a participatory planning process that addresses free prior and informed consent. Information related to social desirabilityincluding the current uses, claims, and traditional rightsis often unavailable prior to conducting fieldwork.
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Figure 2. This POTICO map of West Kalimantan identifies areas that have no/low potential (orange), medium potential (green), and high potential (pink) for sustainable oil palm expansion.
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Maps of acceptable areas can provide input into a participatory planning process but should not pre-determine where oil palm plantations are established. Legal feasibility can be changedand needs to be clarifiedby policy-makers. Some areas that are acceptable according to environmental, economic, and social criteria may be currently unavailable to planters for legal reasons. For example, some of these degraded areas may be legally classified as forest where agricultural activities are not allowed. This does not mean, however, that the area should necessarily be removed from consideration as acceptable for sustainable oil palm plantations. These legal barriers can be removed by policy-makers. However, developing a transparent and fair process for removing legal barriers requires accurate information. Current spatial data regarding legal feasibilitysuch as the location of outstanding permits or other rights and claimsis often unavailable or inconsistent across multiple data sources. To support this methodology, a comprehensive degraded land database would need to include sufficient spatial data to assess these environmental, economic, social, and legal criteria.
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develop land use zoning and permitting procedures to remove legal barriers to sustainable oil palm development in degraded areas. These procedures should be consistent with best practices in participatory spatial planning and the principle of free prior and informed consent. If defined and designed effectively, the proposed degraded land database will help Indonesia achieve its low carbon and agricultural development goals through sustainable oil palm expansion on degraded land.
Read More:
Low Carbon Palm Oil for Indonesia?: An upcoming United States-Indonesia partnership is an opportunity to tackle deforestation. Whats Next for Norway-Indonesia Cooperation on Forests? Map: Forest Cover Loss in Indonesia 2000-2005
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