Absolution of Sin for the Forest Demolishers
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22 May 2024 22:20 WIB
The invasion of forest areas by oil palm plantations has happened in several other places outside Central Kalimantan. The growth of oil palm plantations has not spared the forests of Papua, Sulawesi, Kalimantan, or Sumatra. There were also other breaches in conservation forests and environmental reserve regions.
Sumatra and Kalimantan got the worst forest destruction.
Similar to South Kalimantan's Kelumpang Bay Nature Reserve. Many excavators were observed dredging a section of ground with a half-hill contour that protruded into the seas of Kelumpang Bay on Monday morning, November 13, 2023. Previously bushy areas of the landscape have been replaced with oil palm plantations. On the newly created openings in the plantation area of PT Sinar Kencana Inti Perkasa (PT SKIP) Senakin Estate, palm seedlings that are one or two meters tall are sprouting up.
Water canal ditches that are not entirely built can be seen in several places. In the first quarter of last year, a Sinarmas Group subsidiary in Sembilang Village, Kelumpang Tengah District, Kotabaru Regency, South Kalimantan, started clearing forest lands for oil palm plantations.
The head of Sembilang Village, Ahdiyat, stated that PT SKIP Senakin Estate had breached the village's asset, the Kelumpang Bay Nature Reserve. He objected to the firm, but they disregarded him. "The company said the land was part of its HGU (right to cultivate)," stated Ahdiyat.
Greenpeace and Sawit Watch's examination of satellite images supports reports that the PT SKIP Senakin Estate oil palm plantation is intruding on the Sembilang Village natural reserve. Preliminary data from a land cover analysis using satellite imagery indicates that PT SKIP Senakin Estate is intruding into a conservation area.
The HGU (right to cultivate) of PT SKIP Senakin Estate, which is suggested to be included in the Teluk Kelumpang, Selat Laut, Selat Sebuku (Kelautku) Nature Reserve is 1,789 hectares, according to Syahrul Fitra, a forest campaigner for Greenpeace Indonesia. Of this area, around 333 hectares are in the special block zone, 201 hectares are in the protection or core block zone, and 535 hectares are in the protection zone. "The remaining 720 hectares have no known block zone," Syahrul stated.
The claim that the oil palm land property owned by PT SKIP Senakin Estate was encroaching on the nature reserve area was also verified by the Banjarbaru Region V Forest Area Stabilization Center using the two provided coordinate locations, Lat -2.905649 Long 116.177441 and Lat -2.899056 Long 116.164072. "Points one and two in CA Teluk Kelumpang, HGU (right to cultivate) of PT Sinar Kencana Inti Perkasa," stated Head of BPKH V Banjarbaru M Firman Fahada at the end of November of the previous year. Firman did acknowledge that he was unaware of the company's HGU there, though.
In order to expedite the conclusion of the continuance of oil palm plantation business activities in South Kalimantan, PT SKIP Senakin Estate is currently one of the 26 palm oil firms requesting for pardon. PT SKIP Senakin Estate is among the companies requesting that its oil palm land in forest areas be pardoned, according to Agustinus Adie, Head of the Plantation Division of the South Kalimantan Plantation and Livestock Service.
"They have submitted the process, the area of SKIP's oil palm plantation is 346 hectares," stated Agustinus. He did acknowledge, nevertheless, that he was unaware of the location of the land that SKIP Senakin Estate had suggested be pardoned.
