TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Applause rang out in one of the halls in the Putrajaya Marriot Hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in mid-January. In his address, Chief of Malaysia`s Palm Oil Agency Ahmad Khusairi Din repeatedly expressed his pride in the performance of the country`s plantations. At the Palm Oil Economic Review and Outlook Seminar in 2018, he explained how Malaysia`s palm oil companies will see an increase in production, prices, export volume as well as profits compared to last year.
Malaysia has around six million hectares of palm oil plantations within its territory, all spread throughout the Malaysian Peninsula, Sabah, and Serawak, with an annual palm oil production capacity of 10 tons per hectare. This figure is higher than Indonesia`s plantations, which only yield four tons per hectare on average. But the production figure is thought to have peaked. Malaysia wishes to preserve its remaining forests. "Our area for agriculture is limited, so we're investing in Indonesia," Din said.
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On paper, the 13 Malaysian palm oil companies with plantations in Indonesia control 1.34 million hectares here, of the country`s total area of 11.7 million hectares of plantations. In fact, it is estimated 16 million hectares of palm oil plantations are still productive till now and Malaysian companies operate on four million hectares of the estate. Eight of these 13 palm oil companies are believed to have plantations in forest areas, said Auriga Foundation researcher Syahrul Fitra.
According to Syahrul, the foundation has been looking into the licenses of palm oil companies operating in Indonesia for years, including Malaysian-owned companies. The study is performed by calculating the extent of areas covered by licenses issued to Malaysian companies. Auriga found that these companies have licenses to run plantations in forest areas. This finding contradicts the claim that its local communities who are encroaching on forest areas on a massive scale, said Syahrul.
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Apart from Wilmar, other Malaysian companies with plantations in forest areas include the Felda Global Ventures Holding Berhad and the Tabung Haji Plantation, who are thought to control 21,491 hectares of plantations in forest areas. Of said area, 19,572 hectares are within productive forests, while the remaining is distributed in limited productive forest areas covering 1,217 hectares, with another 73 hectares in conservation areas, 538 hectares in converted forests areas, as well as around 90 hectares in protected forest areas. Most of these forest concessions are in the East Kalimantan Province.
These violations have continued on for decades and are being committed openly. When forests are converted into palm oil plantations, said Syahrul, the wildlife is threatened, and water reserves, as well as peatlands, are also damaged. Forests also function as a buffer that maintains the ecosystem, he added.
