From infoPAPUA.org
WEST PAPUA is Indonesia's OIL PALM target
By Free West Papua Campagin U.K
May 27, 2008, 10:17
"After Sumatra and Kalimantan became too dense for new palm oil plantations, the only land available is in PAPUA"
Achmad Manggabarani, Director General for Plantations, Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture, 21 May 2008
7 REPORTS:
1) Indonesia looking to Papua province to expand palm oil production
2) Indonesia looks to Papua to expand palm oil plantations: official
3) The New Threat to West Papua’s Forests – Oil palm Plantations
4) Govt plans estate for downstream palm oil industry
5) Greenpeace says Indonesia mustn't encroach on Papua forests in oil palm push
6) Bakrie Seeks Permit for Oil Palm Project In Papua
7) Greenpeace Encourages Sustainable Growth of Palm Oil Industry
Richard Samuelson
Free West Papua Campaign, Oxford, UK.
www.freewestpapua.org
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http://www.rnzi.com/pages/news.php?op=read&id=39909
1) Indonesia looking to Papua province to expand palm oil production
Radio New Zealand International 21 May, 2008
Indonesia is now looking at its vast easternmost provinces in Papua to expand its palm oil plantations.
AFP reports Indonesia’s agriculture ministry’s Director General for Plantations, Achmad Manggabarani, as saying that since Sumatra and Kalimantan have become too dense for new palm oil plantations, the only land available is in Papua.
Indonesia, which is the world’s largest palm oil producer, has three to four million hectares of land suitable for palm oil plantations at its disposal in the Papua region.
Mr Manggabarani says that several companies, particularly Malaysian entities, have already expressed interest in taking up the work.
He says concessions would be offered in Papua smaller than the normal 100,000 to 200,000 hectares in Sumatra and Kalimantan.
However environmental groups, including Greenpeace, have called for a moratorium on the expansion of oil palm plantations in Indonesia, warning that soaring world demand is creating an environmental crisis.
The destruction of Indonesia’s forests is seen as a major contributor to global warming and climate change.
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http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jqwJenFP0c1gJL7446ZHZPz3_xOA
2) Indonesia looks to Papua to expand palm oil plantations: official
JAKARTA (AFP) — The government of Indonesia, the world's largest palm oil producer, is now looking at its vast easternmost provinces in Papua to expand its palm oil plantations, a senior official said Wednesday.
"After Sumatra and Kalimantan became too dense for new palm oil plantations, the only land available is in Papua," the agriculture ministry's Director General for Plantations, Achmad Manggabarani, said on the margin of a three-day international conference on the commodity here.
He said the two provinces in Papua, the western half of New Guinea island, have three to four million hectares (up to 9.8 million acres) of land suitable for palm oil plantation.
"Several companies have already expressed interest, especially from Malaysia," Manggabarani said without giving details.
He said smaller concessions would be offered in Papua than the normal 100,000 to 200,000 hectares in Sumatra and Kalimantan.
Under the country's decentralisation drive, the issuing of palm oil concessions is the responsibility of local governments.
"They should only give out 20,000 hectares" per concession, Manggabarani said.
Several environmental groups, including Greenpeace, have called for a moratorium on the expansion of oil palm plantations in Indonesia, warning that soaring world demand is creating an environmental crisis.
Hapsoro, forest campaigner for Greenpeace Southeast Asia, condemned the governments plans for the massive expansion of plantations on Papua.
"I hope it will never happen. Learning from what happened in Sumatra and Kalimantan, without good governance it will not be sustainable," said Hapsoro, who like many Indonesians uses only one name.
Greenpeace Southeast Asia political advisor Arief Wicaksono applauded Anlgo-Dutch food and consumer goods giant Unilever, which said this month it backed a moratorium on further palm oil deforestation in Indonesia and intended to use only fully traceable palm oil by 2015.
"Greenpeace calls for the industry to work together for a moratorium on conversion of peatland and forests... We call on other palm oil producers to follow Unilever's lead," he said.
Indonesia produced an estimated 16.4 million tonnes of palm oil last year.
The destruction of Indonesia's forests is seen as a major contributor to global warming and climate change.
Indonesia and Malaysia, the second largest producer, produce 85 percent of the world's palm oil which is enjoying a boom on the back of strong global demand and tight supply.
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3) West Papua Project-Papua desk Current Briefs:
http://www.arts.usyd.edu.au/centres/cpacs/research/wpp.shtml
The New Threat to West Papua’s Forests – Oil palm Plantations
The HIV/AIDS Pandemic in West Papua
West Papua and New Zealand Foreign Policy
Demographic Transition in West Papua and Claims of Genocide
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4) Govt plans estate for downstream palm oil industry
Business News - Thursday, May 22, 2008
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The government will facilitate the development of an industrial estate for downstream palm oil factories to encourage investors to produce palm oil products with higher added values, a minister says.
"The government is preparing a plot of land for an industrial estate, to be equipped with a seaport, in Dumai, Riau. The estate will be developed by the private sector," Agriculture Minister Anton Priantono said after the opening of a three-day world palm oil summit and exhibition Wednesday.
Anton said the country must further develop its downstream palm oil industry to meet the rising demand for value-added products such as cooking oil in both domestic and overseas markets, particularly China and India.
Riau, the largest crude palm oil (CPO)-producing province in Indonesia, is central to the government's plan to boost the development of the downstream palm oil industry, Anton said.
"In the short term, it is more lucrative to sell crude palm oil, but not in the long term due to tighter competition from other countries," Anton added.
Last year, Indonesia, the largest palm oil producer in the world with about 17 million tons produced, recorded exports of US$5.5 billion (Rp 50 trillion) with more than 75 percent of its palm oil production exported as CPO.
In the same year, Malaysia, the second-largest palm oil producer with 15.7 million tons produced, posted a higher export value of RM37.54 billion ($11.37 billion) with 80 percent of its palm oil production exported as added-value products.
Anton said the government had provided incentives to boost the downstream industry such as reducing the export tax on oleochemical-based products like consumer goods and cooking oil.
However, chairman of the palm oil producers association Gapki, Derum Bangun, said the export tax reduction was not enough.
"The difference between export taxes on olechemical derivatives and CPO is slim, so there's no real advantage in processing CPO into oleochemical and then exporting it," Derum said, adding that the difference was only around 10 percentage points.
"The government should provide more incentives to producers of goods with higher added values," he said, adding that incentives could include tax holidays of between three and four years to let producers achieve sustainability.
"The government should also provide long-term policies so companies can make long-term calculations," he said.
"The government's policy on export tax rates, for instance, changes every month," he said.
The government lowered the export tax on CPO to 15 percent this month from 20 percent last month.
Indonesia exports palm oil to more than 150 countries, including India, China, Pakistan and Japan as well as European and Middle Eastern countries.
Indonesia, with 6.6 million hectares of palm oil plantations, aims to produce 18.6 million tons of palm oil this year. (anw)
5) Greenpeace says Indonesia mustn't encroach on Papua forests in oil palm push
Radio New Zealand International
22 May, 2008
Greenpeace says that without good governance, Indonesia's plans to utilise millions more hectares in its Papua region are unlikely to be sustainably managed.
Indonesia's agriculture ministry says that since Sumatra and Kalimantan have become too dense for new palm oil plantations, the only land available is in Papua.
Indonesia, which is the world's largest palm oil producer, has three to four million hectares of land suitable for palm oil plantations in the Papua region.
However Indonesia's already the third largest carbon emitter in the world and Greenpeace Southeast Asia Political Advisor, Arief Wicaksono, says oil palm plantation expansion will only increase the rate.
He says such plans usually mean more deforestation and ongoing hunger for land.
"The government should have stronger and stricter controls on how the plantations not encroaching the forests. If you look back to early 2007, the Agriculture Minister said that to become number one palm oil producer [in the world], we don't have to encroach natural forests."
Arief Wicaksono of Greenpeace
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6) Bakrie Seeks Permit for Oil Palm Project In Papua
JAKARTA, May 22 Asia Pulse - PT Bakrie Sumatera Plantations Tbk
(BSP) (JSX:UNSP) has applied for a permit for opening 150,000 hectares of land for the development of a crude palm oil (CPO) plant in Papua.
"Expansion in Papua is planned, but we have yet to obtain a permit. Actually we already have applied for 100,000 to 150,000 hectares," Business Development Director of PT BSP, M Iqbal Zainuddin, said here Wednesday.
He said that in terms of economies of scale for building a CPO factory, 100,000 to 150,000 ha of oil palm estates would be needed.
When asked how much would be needed to build CPO factory, he said about US$5,500 to US$6,000 per ha, which include the cost of opening the land and the building of the CPO mill.
"In Papua it is most costly to build a CPO mill, as the infrasructure has yet to be built," he said.
He said that 80 per cent of the land in Papua consist of forests and 20 per cent residential areas. So it is difficult to find enough land, and land must be converted first.
"Thus we first have to wait for the government's decision on whether or not to convert the land. According to people who have already filed an application for the opening of land they have to wait for about three years," Iqbal said.
He said he understood that the regional administration has no authority to issue land opening permits.
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7) Greenpeace Encourages Sustainable Growth of Palm Oil Industry
JAKARTA, May 21 (Asia Pulse/Antara) - Greenpeace has called on Indonesian crude palm oil producers to think of sustainable growth to prevent environmental damage.
"We are not against industries, but they need to understand the need for the most appropriate management of the environment so that industries could continue operating safely, without harming the environment," Southeast Asia Greenpeace political advisor Arief Wicaksono told a press conference in Jakarta on Wednesday.
He added that the expansion of land for the cultivation of oil palm should be temporarily stopped to enable the industries to continue operations safely.
"If the producers and suppliers of CPO, and CPO-consuming industries failed to immediately stop damaging the forests unsustainable industrial operations will create carbon emissions in the future," he added.
He added that as the result of oil palm plantation expansion into forests, and peatland, will increase the emission of CO2 (carbon dioxide) and therefore the greenhouse effect.
"In Indonesia, the annual greenhouse emissions from peatland located near oil palm concessions constitute one per cent of total global emissions," he said.
He also said that if the Kyoto Protocol, second stage, is applied by giving a compensation of 30 euro (US$47.31) per ton of C02 gas emissions, the producers will lose their income.
As an example he cited Unilever as one of the biggest CPO consumers, if the carbon effects are directed to the company, it would have to pay 714 million euro per year, or 14 per cent of its total profits.
"For that purpose, Unilever as a company has pioneered calling for a halt in environmental damage through a moratorium in the CPO industry," he said.
He also said that the damage on the forests caused by oil palm state expansion is also the result of bad government management of this industry.
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Richard Samuelson
Free West Papua Campaign, Oxford, UK.
www.freewestpapua.org
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