PALANGKA RAYA – EXECUTIVE ADMINISTRATION BUREAU. Acting Provincial Secretary of Central Kalimantan Nuryakin attended and opened the Focus Group Discussion (FGD) Preparation for Data Collection and Mapping of People’s Oil Palm Plantation in Forest Areas in Central Kalimantan, Wednesday (16/03/2022), at the Aquarius Ballroom Boutique Hotel, Palangka Raya. The FGD, which was held in collaboration with the Plantation Office of Central Kalimantan Province and the KEHATI Foundation, was attended by a number of representatives of related regencies/municipality throughout Central Kalimantan.

The Acting Provincial Secretary Nuryakin in his speech said that data collection and mapping of oil palm plantations for smallholders were ones of the programs/activities of the Regional Action Plan for Sustainable Oil Palm Plantations (RAD PKSB) Central Kalimantan.

“In order for oil palm development to be sustainable, it is necessary to support the resolution of problems related to land legality, productivity, and to build synergistic partnerships between institutions, especially large private companies and independent smallholders through plasma schemes and other partnership patterns,” he said.

In addition, the Acting Provincial Secretary also reminded regencies/municipality that have not prepared an action plan document for sustainable oil palm plantations to immediately prepare it by referring to Presidential Instruction 6 of 2019 and Central Kalimantan Governor Regulation Number 53 of 2020 concerning Regional Action Plans for Sustainable Oil Palm Plantation (RAD PKSB) Central Kalimantan with the drafting mechanism adapts to the guidelines of the Ministry of Home Affairs.

“On this occasion, I hope that the heads of related office at the regency/municipality level that handle plantations will be willing to be pro-active in data collection and mapping activities for oil palm plantations that are still indicated to be located in forest areas,” he said.

“Hopefully, through this activity, we will have data on the existing condition of the oil palm area of ​​the people spread across the regencies/municipality. And knowing this land data will make it easier for efforts to complete spatial planning, especially from the forestry sector and spatial planning for plantation commodities and other sector commodities in Central Kalimantan,” he said.

Meanwhile, Acting Head of the Plantation Office of Central Kalimantan Province Sri Suwanto said that based on Letter of the Director General of Plantations of the Ministry of Agriculture Number 08 of 2022 dated January 5, 2022, regions were asked to identify and collect data on oil palm plantations to plantations indicated to be located in forest areas.

“This data collection and mapping team mostly involves the People’s Oil Palm Rejuvenation (PSR) team at the provincial level as well as the PSR teams at the regencies/city level. I hope that data collection for oil palm plantations in forest areas does not stop at just data, but it can become a trigger, a reminder to the center to ease the requirements because so far this PSR is required to have Other Use Areas (APL). Meanwhile, APL is very difficult because almost all of APL has been controlled by the company, while the community gets the least, Sri Suwanto concluded. (win/renn/ben/transl.feb)