This presentation uses case studies from Central Kalimantan to illustrate the impacts of expanding palm oil plantations. Topics covered include tenure & land rights, permits, conflict, and natural disasters.

1. PALM OIL
PLANTATIONS
IMPACTS
CENTRAL KALIMANTAN CASES

2. OVER VIEW
• Central Kalimantan has a surface area of 153,564 square
kilometres or 15,356,400 hectares, divided into 14
districts/cities (kabupaten, headed by a regent or bupati), 125
subdistricts (kecamatan), and 1511 villages/wards.
• About 12.7 million hectares (87%) are controlled by
corporations, especially those in the plantation, forestry, and
mining sectors.
• Fifty three per cent of these villages are located by
riverbanks.The region has eleven large rivers and thousands of
smaller rivers and canals, most can be sailed upon. These
rivers provide electricity, water for agriculture, drinking water,
transportation, touristic attraction, etc.

3. Depend on Riverbanks and
peatland
• Most of watersheds in Central Kalimantan suffer from heavy
pollution and degradation. The main sources of pollution are
oil palm industry waste, mining companies, domestic waste,
and organic waste.
• At least 30% of the land in Kalimantan is peat land, and there
are many risks related to the conversion of oil palm
plantations. Peat land and tropical forests in Central
Kalimantan are indispensable for flood prevention, ground
water retention, and the balance of biodiversity in the
ecosystem.

4. Oil Palm expansion
• The size of land controlled by oil palm companies (large
private estates) has been increasing rapidly. Between 1998
and 2008 the increase was 500%.
• In those ten years, an average of 65,349 hectares of forest in
Central Kalimantan were converted into oil palm plantations
every year.
• At the same time, the size of community-owned oil palm
plantations increased 355 per cent, with an average expansion
of 7,235 hectares per year.

5. Issuance permits lacks of
control
• Oil palm corporations started operating in Central Kalimantan
in 1992. Local Regulation no. 3/1993 on Central Kalimantan’s
Zone Planning made it easy for oil palm investors to invest in
Central Kalimantan.
• The issuance of permits lacks control, as evidenced by several
districts that issued permits for plantation and mining that
cover an area of land almost equal in size to the districts
themselves. There are even two districts that issued permits
covering an area of land larger than the districts themselves
such as North Barito and Kapuas.

6. Over size of issuance permits

7. Rainforests become
monocultural landscape
• The rapid increase of investment in the oil palm sector has
caused dramatic changes in Central Kalimantan. The most
apparent change is in the landscape: the lush tropical
rainforests of the past have become a monocultural landscape
with only a single variety of vegetation: the oil palm trees.

8. Size of critical land increases
• The disappearance of forest increases the size of ‘critical
land’—land that has been so severely degraded that it is no
longer productive.
• Based on the 2010 data of the Central Kalimantan Bureau of
Forestry (Dinas Kehutanan), the total size of critical land in the
province is more than 7 million hectares.
• DEGRADATION RATE OF 150,000 HECTARES PER YEAR

9. Conclict intensity increases
• The increased investment in the oil palm sector also increases conflict
intensity. Conflicts happened between
local communities – corporations
communities - local government
individuals and family members in local communities
corporation - corporation
• As per December 2012, The Team on Prevention and Settlement of
Land Disputes in Central Kalimantan documented 278 cases of land
disputes
• The Central Kalimantan Bureau of Plantation (Dinas Perkebunan) has
noted 118 conflicts in 14 districts/cities as per March 2013 involving
plantation companies.
• Most of the conflicts (70.3 per cent) are related to land-grabbing and
compensation.

10. Landgrab through Plasma
Partnership Mechanism
• The lack of clarity in regulation regarding plasma
implementation established by the government has turned
the plasma partnership scheme offered by the company to
the people as a new and legal modus operandi for landgrab.
• There is no partnership agreement on paper between
companies and the people/communities that the people can
hold on to. In the implementation, promises of plasma
plantations are never met or [perhaps] fulfilled but not as
promised.

11. FLOODS AND FIRE
DISASTERS
• The conversion of forest areas that used to function as ground
water retention areas and ‘ecosystem buffer zones’ has
transformed Central Kalimantan into a disaster-prone area:
floods in the rainy season, fire and haze in the dry season.
• Flooding is getting worse and more frequent, not only
because of the high level of rain drops, but also because of the
sedimentation of rivers and the loss of forests as ground
water retention areas.

12. The change of community life
Sarapat Village, East Barito
• Life in tranquil and peaceful community of Sarapat Village,
East Barito changed drastically in 2007, when the oil palm
industry entered their village. PT Sawit Graha Manunggal
(SGM) possessed a number of written permits from local
governments and the Forestry and Plantation Bureau. PT SGM
was also supported by every local political power at the
district and village levels.
• The existence of PT SGM threatens the civil and political rights
of the villagers of Sarapat who refuse to give up their land.
The villagers who protested against the seizing of their land
were arrested and imprisoned. Persuasions and intimidations
force the villagers to give up their land.

13. The change of community life
Sarapat Village, East Barito
• Villagers requested PT SGM and the local government to
exclude the indigenous forest/land from the concession area
of the palm oil plantation. The request rejected. PT SGM even
had expanded their plantation to the back of the villagers’
house and closed in on the bank of the river. The boundary
between the plantation and the river bank is no more than
fifty meter.
• The palm oil plantation has created conflicts and tensions
between the villagers. There are tensions between families,
between villagers, and villagers with its apparatus, beside
between Sarapat Village and Murutuwu Village regarding
boundaries of their villages.

14. The change of community life
Sarapat Village, East Barito
• The disappearance of the forest and farmland, as well as the
decrease of fishes in the river, forced the majority of villagers
to switch jobs from farmers, gatherers, and hunters to day
labourers for the plantation owned by PT SGM. From being
food subsistent to become dependent of the wage in order to
buy food.
• Cultural practices decline because there are no more forest,
land, area, law, institutions, traditions, rituals, educational
system and institutions, language, knowledge, medicines, and
local food. No more regular traditional meeting on the
management of natural resources.

15. River banks community at
Katingan District
• The majority of the customary community in Katingan District
live on the river banks, along the Katingan River and its
subsidiaries. Among them are the communities of villages
Mirah Kalanaman, Tumbang Marak, Tumbang Kalemei,
Tumbang Hange, and Tumbang Pariyei, which is in the area of
the Central Katingan Sub-district.
• The Mirah Kalanaman Village is the village located closest to
the palm oil plantation companies, almost in-between them.

16. River Banks Community at
Katingan District
• The Katingan River, which is 300 km long, is not only a source
of food for the community but also a source of clean water
and a means of transportation.
• The condition of the subsidiaries of Katingan River located in
the palm oil plantation area is very worrying due to the
chemical waste from the palm oil industry, such as pesticides,
herbicides, various chemical fertilizers – both those who are
added directly to the soil as well those that are sprayed into
the air – as well as the waste-products of the palm oil
processing.

17. River banks community at
Katingan District
• Since PT. Karya Dewi Putra (KDP) started operating around the
Tumbang Marak village, the company has disturbed the
villagers’ management of their rubber trees and rice fields.
The company does not seek the consent of the local
community prior to starting operations.
• Mirah Kalanaman is the one of the villages affected most by
the presence of the palm oil industries. PT. Bumi Hutan Lestari
(BHL) started to operate in 1997 while PT KDP followed in
2003. KDP is located side by side with PT. BHL and PT.
Kasongan Bumi kencana (KBK), which started operating in
2005. In addition, in 2007 PT. Bangkit Usaha Mandiri (BUM)
and PT Katingan Mitra Sejati (KMS) destroyed a traditional
forest that has been maintained for ages.

18. River banks community at
Katingan District
• Tens thousand hectares of forest were instantly changed to
open land, and smoke arose every day because the
corporation used fire to clear land.
• Initially, the people did not consider the negative impact of
the diminished forest. They were only thinking of the road
that was going to be built, the school building, the healthcare
facilities and electricity.
• But then, the forest disappeared, and the water sources got
polluted. The river water that used to be clear became muddy
and dark in color. The fish died. Other animals, like birds, were
also found dead by the river.

19. Kabuau Village Community
• Kabuau Village administratively is a part of Parenggean sub-
district, Kotawaringin Timur district. The people of Parenggean
sub-district say that the Kabuau village is the most
troublesome village in Parenggean sub-district aside from
Kuala Kuayan village. Kabuau village is located about 500
meters from the CPO mill owned by PT Katingan Indah Utama
(KIU), a sibsidiary of Makin Group.
• Ninety-nine percent of the people in Kabuau Village work for
PT KIU. From that number eighty percent have the status of
freelance daily workers, with a pay of Rp 68,000 per day
without social insurance or other assurances. The number of
working days in a month set by the company is only 12 days,
so that in one month they would only earn around Rp
800,000.

20. Kabuau Village Community
• PT KIU plants oil palm to the edge of the rivers. Whereas
according to regional bylaws, the distance for planting oil
palm from the river banks can be no less than 300 meters for
small rivers and 500 meters for large rivers.
• Since the operations of oil palm plantation in Kabuau village,
people say they are more vulnerable to illnesses. Many people
get sick often. The illness they suffer was never seen before.
The various types of illnesses recorded in the data include skin
allergies, coughs, colds, uric acids, cholesterol, anemia, ulcers,
and dental illnesses. The list of village residents experiencing
health disturbances has been submitted to the company, but
no response coming from the company.

21. Kabuau Village Community
• As oil palm workers their wage is hardly sufficient to cover
their daily needs, whereas the proceeds from the plasma
plantations are disappointing. The low wage, expensive price
of basic goods, and proceeds from plasma plantations that
cannot be relied upon, have forced around 25-30 percent of
the people to sell their plasma gardens to meet their basic
economic needs.
• The total area of partnership land (plasma) should be around
1,407 hectares, but almost half of the total partnership
plantation land is owned by the company with the status of
pinjam pakai contract for thirty years. With the partnership
scheme of 50:50, currently, the area of partnership lands
owned by the people is only 970.76 hectares.

22. Kabuau Village Community
• In October 2013, the village community coordinated by the
adat village institution conducted a protest to the oil palm
company. They closed the road to PT KIU’s CPO mill. The
people demanded that PT KIU pays attention to the minimal
conditions of the village facilities and infrastructure. The
villagers’ anger was uncontained after the waste from the CPO
mill spilled and caused pollution.
• PT KIU itself has admitted that there really was a waste
leakage and the mill was shut down for one day to clean the
spilled waste, but the government did not take any strict
action.

23. Conclusions
• The oil palm plantations operate their business without respecting
basic human rights acknowledged by national and international
laws. As a result, companies have widely abused economic, social
and cultural rights of local people. The closer the residing areas to
the plantations, the more serious the impact of human rights
violation suffered by individuals and communities.
• Human rights violation perpetrated by oil palm companies has been
under way because the government has not observed its
responsibility toward human rights conditions. The government has
not carried out its obligations to protect people’s rights from human
rights violations by the companies. The government has also not
accomplished its obligations to resolve the violations that have
occurred and to take necessary steps to remediation for the victims.

24. Conclusions
• As for the obligation to protect people from rights violation by
corporations, government has failed to prevent the violation
from happening through providing necessary laws, regulations
and policies. The existing laws such as in plantations, forestry
and environment have not adequately fulfilled the minimum
necessary for recognising the rights of the individuals and the
communities.
• Apart from the inadequate contents of the laws in recognizing
the rights of the individuals and the communities, the
government has not accomplished the legal provisions
mandated in the laws for the prevention of the rights
violation.

25. Recommendations
For government:
-Keeps going with moratorium policy for oil palm plantations and
others like mining and logging licences
-Bring evaluation for corporations performances to ensure their
commitment in granting rights for communities and labors
-Make evaluation and identify the area management for communities
in every levels of villages, sub districts and regents to ensure the
protection for community rights, espescially the rights to manage their
own land and properties.
-Provide clear, transparent and effective complaints mechanism
-Evaluate partnership model between corporation and communities
and opening other possible partnership models.

26. THANK YOU

27. Recommendations
For civil society: