Minggu, 11 April 2010

Ekspansi 400 Hektare per Tahun Kebun Sawit Ancam Lingkungan Hidup

Antara/Kasriadi
JAKARTA--MI: Ekspansi sekitar 400 hektare per tahun untuk perkebunan kelapa
sawit di Indonesia dinilai dapat mengancam lingkungan hidup. Terlebih lagi,
kebun sawit di Indonesia yang luasnya mencapai 9 juta hektare sebagian besar
terdiri dari lahan produktif.

Hal tersebut disampaikan Head of Department Campaign and Public Education
Sawit Watch Jefri Gideon Saragih dalam acara jumpa pers dengan lembaga
swadaya masyarakat (LSM) Indonesia tentang perkebunan kelapa sawit
Indonesia, di Jakarta, Selasa (6/4).
"Ekspansi yang kita catat 400 ribu hektare per tahun dan sekarang mulai
makin banyak ke timur," katanya.

Sebaiknya, ekspansi perkebunan sawit di Indonesia bisa menggunakan 7,3 juta
hektare lahan terlantar yang diumumkan Badan Pertanahan Nasional beberapa
waktu lalu. Namun setelah diselidiki, Jefri mengungkapkan bahwa lahan
terlantar tersebut banyak dimiliki perusahaan-perusaha an yang sulit
melepaskan haknya. Maka perusahaan sawit tidak mau susah dengan memilih
lahan produktif yang tersedia.

Jefri menyarankan agar Indonesia lebih baik mengoptimalkan perkebunan sawit
yang sudah ada daripada memperluasnya lagi.
"Kenapa kita ngotot ekspansi? Malaysia saja yang luas kebunnya cuma 4,9 juta
hektare bisa menghasilkan 18 juta ton. Kita dengan 9 juta hektare hanya bisa
menghasilkan 21 juta ton," jelasnya.

Selain itu, ia khawatir dengan banyaknya penguasaan asing di perkebunan
sawit Indonesia. Jefri melihat Indonesia hanya sebagai penyedia tenaga kerja
dan lahan. "Masalahnya kita bangga dengan luas kebun kita, hasil produksi
tiap tahun kita, padahal sebenarnya itu bukan punya kita sendiri," ujarnya.

Tidak hanya lingkungan hidup, ekspansi perkebunan sawit juga meninggalkan
masalah lainnya, seperti konflik dengan masyarakat adat sekitar daerah
perkebunan sawit setempat.

Director of International Advocacy and Foreign Affairs Aliansi Masyarakat
Adat dan Nusantara (AMAN) Mina Susana Setra menilai ekspansi perkebunan
sawit yang dilakukan perusahaan produsen crude palm oil (CPO) tidak
menghormati kepemilikan tanah adat di daerah sekitarnya. "Tidak ada
pengakuan tanah yang dimiliki masyarakat adat," katanya.

Ditambah lagi, pemerintah tidak mengawasi tata ruang lingkungan sehingga
perusahaan CPO bisa seenaknya menggunakan lahan.
"Pemerintah tidak pernah menegur Taman Nasional Danau Sentarum dilepas jadi
perkebunan sawit. Perbatasan Kalbar (Kalimantan Barat-Malaysia) juga sudah
carut marut tata ruang dan pertahanan TNI-nya," cetus Mina.

Sementara itu, buruh perusahaan produsen CPO selama ini mendapat perlakuan
tidak adil. Mereka memperoleh skema upah rendah dan tidak memiliki kenaikan
gaji secara berkala.

Berdasarkan pengamatan Direktur Pengawasan dan Perlindungan Hak Buruh
Kelompok Pelita Sejahtera Medan, Gindo Nadapdap, buruh perusahaan produsen
CPO di Sumatra Utara hanya menerima upah Rp 8-15 ribu per hari. "Jumlah ini
jauh di bawah upah minimum provinsi yang seharusnya Rp 965 ribu per bulan,"
jelasnya. (*/OL-7)
http://www.mediaind onesia.com/ read/2010/ 04/06/134196/ 89/14/Ekspansi- 400-Hektare-per-Tahun- Kebun-Sawit- Ancam-Lingkungan -Hidup

Audit result on SMART due in June

Mustaqim Adamrah , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Thu, 04/08/2010 9:04 AM
| Business
Crude palm oil producer PT Sinar Mas Agro Resources and Technology (SMART)
expects the verification work on allegations that it illegally destroyed
forests would be finished by the end of this June.
“We have delivered the terms of reference [for the verification] to the two
consulting firms … we still need to arrange some details,” SMART president
director Daud Dharsono told reporters on Wednesday following a meeting with
Trade Ministry officials and executives of the Netherlands- based consumer
goods producer Unilever.
“Therefore, we hope the verification will be completed within the next eight
to 12 weeks — by the end of June,” he added.
For the verification process, SMART has appointed two independent
consultants, Control Union Certification (CUC) of the Netherlands and the
British Standards Institute Group (BSI) through their representative offices
in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and in Singapore, respectively.
Results of the verification are expected, as SMART says, to help “clarify”
environmental issues raised by the environmental group Greenpeace.
In a 2008 Greenpeace report, the organization indicated that CPO producers
had converted peat lands, natural forests and habitats of Indonesia’s
indigenous orangutan into oil palm plantations. The report was later
supported by a field investigation and satellite data.
Greenpeace has since urged CPO buyers, such as Switzerland- based food
producer NestlĂ©, the Unilever group and the US-based company Cargill —
producer and marketer of food, agricultural, financial and industrial
products and services — to stop buying CPO from producers disregarding
sustainable plantation practices required by the Roundtable on Sustainable
Palm Oil (RSPO) sponsored by producers and buyers.
After this report Unilever suspended in December last year all future
purchases of 47,000 tons of CPO per year worth approximately US$33 million
from SMART and decided two months later to no longer source palm oil from
Indonesian supplier Duta Palma.
Following the decision of Unilever, Nestle, which consumes 4,000 tons of CPO
a year, joined the move last month, deciding also to stop buying CPO from
SMART.
Local producers now fear other large international CPO buyers such as
Cargill, Loders Croklaan, Kraft and Shell could also terminate their
contracts with SMART.
Meanwhile, Unilever Indonesia corporate secretary Sancoyo Antarikso said
Unilever would wait for the results before deciding whether to resume
buying CPO from SMART.
Indonesia is the world’s largest CPO producer and exporter, with total
production reaching 20.2 million tons last year.
http://www.thejakar tapost.com/ news/2010/ 04/08/audit- result-smart- due-june. html

Plantation firms to produce biodiesel for Pertamina

Nani Afrida , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Fri, 04/09/2010 10:53 AM |
Business

Three state plantation firms - PT Perkebunan Nusantara (PTPN) III, IV and V
- will begin the construction of three biodiesel plants in Dumai, Riau
province, before the second half of the year starts.
The three plants are expected to absorb Rp 400 billion in total investment.
"The plants will be finished in the next 18 months. In 2012 the plants will
start producing biodiesel," PTPN IV president director Dahlan Harahap said
on the sidelines of the signing of an MoU between the three firms with state
oil and gas producer PT Pertamina on Thursday.
Pertamina has agreed to purchase the biodiesel from the plants and to
prepare a storage facility for the biodiesel at the port in Dumai.
Dahlan said each of the plants has a capacity to process 100,000 tons of oil
palm fruit bunches (TBS) annually. The capacity is expected to be doubled by
2014.
"If the demand keeps increasing, the capacity may jump to 1 million tons of
TBS every year," he said.
Dahlan said about 30 percent of the investment needed to construct the
plants would come from the companies' internal cash flow and the rest from
bank loans.
Biofuel is currently being sold to retail customers. In 2008, Pertamina had
279 petrol stations selling biofuel while PLN has also used biofuel to help
power nine of its power stations. These nine stations have a total capacity
of 96 megawatts (MW).
Currently Indonesia has produced two types of biofuel: bioethanol - made
from cassava, sugarcane and sweet sorghum, and biodiesel - made from castor,
crude palm oil and jatropha.
By 2015, Indonesia plans to have 10 million hectares of palm oil
plantations, up from 7.9 million today.
According to studies by state plantation companies, there are 44 million
hectares of land in the country ideal for palm oil plantation. Using
conservative yield estimates, this area of oil palm plantation could produce
145 billion liters per year of biodiesel, or 10 percent of current fossil
diesel demand.
Besides planning to produce biodiesel, the state plantation firms also plan
to produce electricity from biomass-generated power plants and sell it to
state electricity company PT PLN.
To produce electricity power in the CPO factories, one factory will require
between Rp 30 billion and Rp 40 billion in investment. Dahlan said PTPN IV
currently operates 50 factories, with each one potentially able to generate
3 MW of power from biomass, mostly from the Empty Fruit Bunches (EFB) and
any other available biomass waste.
PLN will be obtaining electric power from CPO plantations from power
generated from biomass (EFBs) while Pertamina will obtain biofuel processed
from the CPO itself.
"At the present, only two factories are ready to produce 6 MW in total of
electricity power," he said.
CPO is playing an increasingly important role in Indonesia today with the
demand for the product increasing which not only for food consumption and
other uses but also as an energy supply crop.
The Indonesian Palm Oil Producers Association (GAPKI), consists of about 370
CPO producer firms making use of about 2.4 million hectares of oil palm
plantations. They, along with many smaller farmers, are aiming to produce
at least 25 million tons of CPO this year, up by 25 percent from last year's
production target of 20 million tons.
http://www.thejakar tapost.com/ news/2010/ 04/09/plantation -firms-produce- biodiesel-pertamina. html