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NGO urges increased palm oil output rather than bemoan moratorium
An environmental NGO has prompted palm oil companies to concentrate on increasing output instead of protesting the governmentâs plan to extend a moratorium on forest clearance that is due to expire this month
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n environmental NGO has prompted palm oil companies to concentrate on increasingoutput instead of protesting the government's plan to extend a moratorium on forestclearance that is due to expire this month.
Sawit Watch coordinator Jefri Gideon criticized many palm oil companies' decision to prioritize expansion rather than formulating ways to maximize production.
'We have an example of how a palm oil company has been expanding its business for 15 years but still cannot maximize output,' Jefri said on Wednesday.
The moratorium, which has put a freeze on issuing forest clearance permits, has sparked criticism, especially from plantation firms that prioritize expansion to get more benefits.
Jefri said another problem of much concern was the absence of clear borders between preservation forests and production forests.
He said the absence of such a perimeter had led to many companies planting oil palms in conservation forests, such as in the Tesso Nilo National Park in Riau.
Another activist, Ade Cholik Mutaqin from the Participative Mapping Working Network (JKPP), said that some palm oil plantations had been established on land belonging to indigenous people.
He then cited a case in which members of the Suku Anak Dalam tribe in Jambi had been ousted from their land to make way for an oil palm plantation. Indonesia is home to 136.2 million hectares of forest, of which only 12 million hectares have clear borders.(nai/dic)
