Carbon, crime and impunity in Indonesia’s plantation sector

PHOTO Credit: EIA.

Central Kalimantan is the REDD Pilot Province under the Indonesia-Norway US$1 billion REDD deal. Here, if anywhere, we should see the evidence of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s recent statement that “Indonesia has reversed course by committing to sustainable forestry.” Unfortunately, the evidence points to business as usual.

A report released this week by the Environmental Investigation Agency and Telapak reveals what business as usual in Central Kalimantan looks like. Six years ago, PT Suryamas Cipta Perkasa (PT SCP), an Indonesia oil palm company, received preliminary approval for a plantation in Central Kalimantan. That should have been the start of a process of licensing and environmental approvals before clearing the forest and planting oil palm could start. Instead, the company just cleared the forest, drained the peat swamp and planted oil palm.

In March 2012, EIA and Telapak submitted evidence to the Indonesian authorities about the various laws that PT SCP had broken. The company has converted more than 23,000 hectares of peatland and peat swamp forest to oil palm, in the process, “destroying the livelihoods of local communities, the habitat of hundreds of endangered orangutans, and generating millions of tonnes of carbon emissions”, EIA and Telapak note.

But four months later, the authorities have taken no action, and trucks laden down with oil palm kernels continue to make the overnight drive from the plantation to PT SCP’s palm oil mill in Sampit. EIA and Telapak note that their meetings with Indonesian officials reveal “a worrying picture … of a bureaucracy struggling to enforce its own laws”.

EIA and Telapak’s dossier evidence submitted to the authorities in March 2012, can be downloaded here. The report, “Testing the Law”, can be downloaded here.

EIA and Telapak produced a short film about PT SCP’s plantation:

EIA and Telapak note that PT SCP is far from the only company operating illegally in Central Kalimantan:

During investigations into a number of illegal plantation companies in Central Kalimantan, PT SCP emerged as the clearest and most egregious case. The evidence EIA/Telapak delivered to the GoI in March 2012 presents a clear test of its ability to enforce the law.

PT SCP is part of the PT Best Agro International Group, which is privately owned by the Indonesian Tjajadi family. Reuters analysed the satellite images of the concession area from 2004 to late 2011. During this period, the area of forest declined from 17,600 hectares to just over 2,100 hectares. Clearing started in September-November 2006 and continued to 2009. The company cleared the forest without receiving a forest clearance permit from the Ministry of Forestry.

In a press release, EIA Forests Campaigner Tom Johnson said:

“This case clearly demonstrates the gulf between the rhetoric on reducing deforestation and the reality on the ground. The Government has been aware of the illegality for years but has demonstrated no intent to do anything to protect the environment or the local community in line with the law.

“Companies such as PT SCP are operating with extraordinary levels of impunity. A key reason for that is because government officials don’t appear to feel they have any obligation to enforce the law.

“The state bureaucracy is prioritising the continuing operation of plantations over enforcement of the law. As a consequence, progressive elements of the Government are pushing for reforms and new legislation that are simply being undermined.”

In the report, EIA and Telapak note that the area of peat drained by PT SCP is approximately the same area as the area of peat that may be re-flooded under the Australian-funded Kalimantan Forests and Climate Partnership:

The crimes committed by PT SCP have effectively written-off a substantial portion of any climate gains that might be made in the KFCP project before they have even occurred – highlighting how effective law enforcement may well present a cheaper, faster and more effective mode of doing REDD+ in Indonesia than isolated REDD+ demonstration projects.