JAKARTA – Professor of Forestry at the Faculty of Forestry of Bogor University of Agriculture (IPB), Sudarsono Soedomo said the palm oil industries have been always accused as the cause of deforestation. But apparently, data on the forest use is not accurate and is often used by the accusers to block the exports of palm oil products to the European Union (EU) market.
Such accusation is against the data presented recently by international organizations like the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Resources Institute (WRI), which reported that deforestation has been declining in Indonesia.
Speaking during the 27th meeting of Committee on Forestry (COFO) in Rome, Italy, Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya said that based on the report of FAO titled “The Condition of Global Forest 2024”, deforestation in Indonesia during 2021/2022 decreased by 8.4 percent.
In the FAO’s report 2024, with the main theme about innovation in forestry sector toward more sustainable future, FAO also mentioned the rate of gross loss of global mangrove forests, including in Indonesia, at 23 percent during the period of 2000-2010 and 2010-2020. “This is an encouraging news. But our job is still far from finished,” the minister said.
A Norway-facilitated analysis by the World Resources Institute (WRI), the University of Maryland, and the Forestry Ministry revealed that Indonesia’s deforestation rate reached only 0.13 million hectares per year in 2022-2023.
“The WRI review confirms that the rate of deforestation in Indonesia, under President Jokowi’s leadership, is the lowest in history, surpassing other countries,” Siti told the forum, as reported by a recent press statement.
Sudarsono said that one factor that causes palm oil being accused of causing deforestation is the different definitions adopted by both EU and Indonesia.
He said that despite limited areas, the oil palm plantations have significantly contributed to Indonesian economy.
The government, he said, should tackle the legal problems of oil palm plantations, especially their overlapping status with forest areas, which are potential to reduce national production if left unaddressed. “Addressing the legal certainty of oil palm plantations will contribute to the national efforts of increasing productivity of national oil palm plantations,” he said.
”When the problems in the upstream sector can be resolved, then output in the downstream industries can be increased,” said Sudarsono when addressing a ceremony to launch a book titled “Palm Oil, A Gift Worth Fighting For” in Jakarta, on Thursday (05/09/2024).
Meanwhile, the Indonesia Palm Oil Strategic Studies’ (IPOSS) Supervisory Board Deputy Chairman Sofyan Djalil said that the main challenge facing Indonesian palm oil is the governance.
He said that as a result Indonesia’s national palm oil production has been stagnant during the last few years. “One of the factors causing the stagnant production is the legal certainty regarding legal ownership of oil palm plantations. Overlapping locations of oil palm plantations with forest areas are caused by the frequently changed regulations. As a result, the palm oil production of smallholders and plantation companies cannot be optimized,” he said. (*)
