IS DEFORESTATION STILL LINKED TO PALM OIL PLANTATION CLEARING
27 June 2019
Bisnis.com, MEDAN--Oil palm plantations and their products are often associated with deforestation. Are these two things still related?
President Director of PT Mahkota Group Tbk. Usli Sarsi said that currently the Government is more assertive in resolving forestry issues. Therefore, he said deforestation was unlikely to occur due to the expansion of oil palm plantations.
In the previous regime, he said the issue of deforestation might still be closely related to oil palm plantations but the change in the Government's attitude made these two things no longer related.
“In the past, maybe, yes, but now with the assertiveness of the Government, it seems impossible for deforestation to occur,” he said recently.
In addition, he said, the government is concerned about environmental issues, making it less likely that forests will be encroached upon for the development of the palm oil industry.
“Well, let alone protected forests that have been designated as the lungs of the world, where would anyone dare to touch?” he said.
In addition, he said that other issues associated with the palm oil industry such as underage workers were also irrelevant.
This, he said, was only a European strategy to restrain the flow of crude palm oil (CPO) from Indonesia.
According to Usli, underage children who are in oil palm plantations only help their parents, not being one of the workers in oil palm plantations.
“We know that children are sometimes taken by their parents.
Following them, picking up loose fruits, that's helping their parents. We are just small and help our parents in the rice mill. So if they come along, it does not mean they are employed,” he said.
A number of barriers were created because the price of CPO from Indonesia remained competitive despite the high import duties.
The reason is that in terms of volume, CPO from Indonesia is more abundant when compared to European soybean oil production.
“Their cost is very high. We produce 4 tons in 1 hectare in 1 year. They are 10% [of that],” he said.