Balancing and counterbalancing : the Indonesian state addressing pressures to improve palm oil sector sustainability

Abstract

vi AcknowledgmentThough I was the one to take all steps in preparing, conducting and finalizing my PhD research, I did not travel alone. Many other people travelled with me, contributing to the success of my learning process and making my tough journey also a pleasant one. They invested their time and energy, sharing their intelligence in my research endeavour. There are far too many people to thank, without whom this project would not have materialised.I am fortunate to have received several years of funding from an interdisciplinary research program called 'Towards Environmentally Sustainable and Equitable Palm Oil' funded by the Interdisciplinary Research and Education Fund (INREF) of Wageningen University. When I started considering PhD research, I could not imagine that I would finally embark on a sixyear journey of research and writing. I would say that in these six years, it has been a luxury to spend most of my time working as a researcher, while also struggling to secure a livelihood from short-time assignments.

Expansion Trend: Indonesia's Palm Oil Sector Government Plantation Heading for Extinction

“…However, since the Japanese occupation period (1942)(1943)(1944)(1945), the Indonesian palm oil industry has declined. Palm oil plantations are not maintained so they suffer damage (Pramudya 2018). Many palm oil plantation lands are converted to food crops (PASPI 2023).…”

“…The government at that time saw plantations including palm oil plantations as exploitative, thus contrary to the spirit of freedom that had just been obtained by the Indonesia nation. President Sukarno as the country's leader placed more emphasis on social equality (Pramudya 2018) and nationalist economic policies that discouraged foreign investment and exports (Choiruzzad, Tyson, and Varkkey 2021) That policy had an impact on Indonesia's CPO production which only amounted to 56,000 tons in 1948/1949 (Mustafa 2022). It dropped dramatically compared to 1940 which even had time to export CPO of 250,000 (two hundred and fifty thousand) tons in 1940 (PASPI 2023).…”

“…It dropped dramatically compared to 1940 which even had time to export CPO of 250,000 (two hundred and fifty thousand) tons in 1940 (PASPI 2023). Then in 1958, CPO production amounted to 147,000 (one hundred forty-seven thousand) tons (Pramudya 2018). Although in 1958 CPO production increased, CPO exports fell to 17% of the global market share (Choiruzzad, Tyson, and Varkkey 2021).…”

“…2.3 New Orde (1966-1998 The New Orde under the leadership of President Suharto, began from 1966 to 1998. (Pramudya 2018;Brad et al 2015;Andrianto, Komarudin, and Pacheco 2019). During this time, political power was concentrated with President Suharto.…”

The roles of high conservation value area to support biodiversity conservation in Indonesia

“…The issue of deforestation by oil palm plantations has become a hot issue in the European Union in the last three years [5]. Based on several studies, forest conversion into oil palm plantations is a source of forest degradation and deforestation, even oil palm expansion is the "main drivers" of deforestation in Indonesia [4,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16].…”