A coalition of activists called on the government to review a policy on a large-scale food production systems being built over 1.6 million hectares of forest areas in Merauke, Papua province.
They said the 2010 government regulation on cultivation would not improve the country’s food sovereignty issue as it only accommodated the interests of the giant private companies to reap benefits.
The government should assess, among other issues, whether the estate would benefit local people and whether Merauke’s environment could accommodate such a huge food estate project.
“It is too risky for the country to entrust its food sovereignty to private businesses,” the coordinator of Alliance for Prosperous Villages, Tejo Wahyu Jatmiko told reporters on Thursday.
Article 2 in the regulations says the cultivation aimed to promote food sovereignty and security and improve local people’s welfare.
The regulation says that in Papua a license holder could manage 20,000 hectares, twice as large allowed in other provinces.
Article 24 says the products from the cultivation should be prioritized to meet domestic needs in the event a natural disaster or massive crop failure. The status would be determined by the President.
“This article means products from food estates would mainly go abroad. So how would it fulfill food security in the country?” Tejo said.
The coalition warned the projects would violate the spatial planning and environment laws.
The environment law requires the local administration to assess environmental capacity as the basis to determine types of business activities eligible in the area.
The Alliance of Prosperous Villages consists of 18 non-governmental organizations, including Sawit Watch, People’s Coalition on Food Sovereignty and the People’s Coalition for Justice in Fisheries (Kiara).
Public campaigner at the Sawit Watch, Edi Sutrisno said oil palm plantations are a lesson on how people do not benefit without thorough environmental analyses.
“We are not against food for people program, but the plan of food estate in Papua does not target Indonesia’s needs,” he said.
The food estate is one of priority agendas of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono this year.
The first projects will convert an area of 500,000 hectares.
| 
|
|
|
|
|
|
|