What about abandoned land?
31 palm companies in the lower lying parts of the border area. About two-thirds of Sintang
District falls within the 100km border zone.
4.3 What about abandoned land?
It is a great win for the conservation agenda that the Indonesian national government has expressed its commitment to steer oil palm development in the border area away
from forestlands i.e. land under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Forestry and High Conservation Value Forests HCVF. ‘Abandoned lands’ are now set to be the
primary target area for the envisaged expansion of oil palm plantations in the border area. It is feared though, that this will in practise mean that the customary rights land
of the Dayak communities will be taken over. In the past 5 years, the Indonesian media regularly reported that a lot of plantation
concessions issued by the government are not truly developed into oil palm greenfields. Instead, these lands appear to be abandoned as the concession holder
does not work the land. Some recent data are presented below: -
In East Kalimantan, 2 million hectares of land is reserved for oil palm development, but only 303,000 hectares have been planted. It is estimated that
some 3.1 million hectares of forest was cleared under the banner of plantation development.
70
- In West Kalimantan, of the 1.5 million hectares of land reserved for plantations,
only 354,000 hectares are planted see Table 6. Permits have been issued to 118 plantation companies, but only 66 companies are active.
71
Table 6. Status of oil palm plantations issued in several districts in Kalimantan. Area already released
District Planted
Not yet planted Total
Non-active
Pontianak 5,844
205,570 211,414 114,700
Landak 21,882
105,818 127,700 291,095
Sambas 12,558
117,518 130,076 113,850
Bengkayang 10,707
230,493 241,200
20,840 Sanggau
142,109 670,161
812,270 53,000
Sintang 63,088
279,062 342,150 272,625
Kapuas Hulu 5,400
15,750 21,150 319,010
Ketapang 92,749
373,326 466,075 328,650
TOTAL 354,337
1,997,697 2,352,034
1,513,770 Source: Dinas Perkebunan Provinsi Kalimantan Barat 2004.
Why so much land remains unutilized is not well research. There are a few plausible reasons: