Developing oil palm plantation from degraded land on mineral soil Follow up of environmental parameters: 2009 - 2011 Output30/BACP By Denis Ruysschaert, Ian Singleton, Serge Wich, Gunung Gea, Mistar, Nuzuar, Riswan Zen, Bas van Balen, Adji Darsoyo. September 2011 1 Introduction – development of oil palm plantations on degraded land The Pilot Study (PS) on Sustainable Palm Oil is located in the village of Lamie, Nagan Raya District, Aceh Province, Indonesia. The Pilot Study aims to showcase that it is possible to develop RSPO standard oil palm plantations with smallholders, on mineral soils with degraded vegetation, instead of continuing the destruction of forests to establish oil palm plantations at the large scale. The project also seeks to operate in the least environmentally damaging and biodiversity friendly manner possible, to limit the impact of oil palm plantation on these degraded areas, and on surrounding areas, which includes the precious peatswamp forests of Tripa, an integral part of the biodiversity rich Leuser Ecosystem. As such, all operations of the pilot study have been carried out following the procedures and methods of organic farming. Chemical fertilizers and chemical pesticides are forbidden and the farmers use only bio-pesticides and organic fertilizers. These pesticides and organic fertilizers are developed and applied by the farmers themselves. The farmers have been trained and supported to do so. It must be noted, however, that PT Socfindo, who supplied the original seedlings for the project, developed the seedlings in the conventional “non-organic” manner. The decision to develop the Pilot Study on areas with degraded vegetation first of all aims at providing an example to palm oil companies that it is technically possible to develop degraded land for palm oil production, instead of clearing huge areas of forested land. It is especially aimed at providing an alternative for oil-palm development on peatlands, which is currently a common practice for the development of new oil palm concessions in the adjacent Tripa peatswamp forest, and elsewhere in Indonesia and South-East Asia. Indeed, peatlands are among the last lowland forest ecosystems that have not yet been converted. They are therefore highly attractive for the implementation of large-scale industrial operations (i.e. those over 1,000 ha) for oil palm and for pulp & paper production. CIFOR (IRIN, 2011), noted that lowland peatswamps are disappearing at a rate of around 100,000 ha per year. Lowland peatswamp rainforests in Sumatra alone were reduced by more than 60% between 1985 and 2007 (WWF, 2010), and it is very well known that the major oil palm companies within Indonesia still have large tracts of as yet undeveloped concessions on peatswamp forest in their reserve banks (Greenpeace, 2008). It is in this wider context that the RSPO endorsed PanEco‟s Pilot Study, at its General Assembly in 2006. Indeed, the alternative development of oil palm plantations outside forested land, especially outside peatswamp forests, is a currently the focus of much discussion within the palm oil industry. Degraded land therefore seems an important option to consider. There are about 7,4 million ha of degraded land in Indonesia and 200,000 ha in Aceh province alone. The potential to use degraded land for future oil palm plantations does certainly exist. 2 With regard to the decision to adopt organic production methods and procedures, it is consistent with the RSPO Principles and Criteria (P&C) for sustainable palm oil production. In fact, it goes beyond the existing RSPO P&C, as the use of chemicals, such as Paraquat is permitted on plantations seeking RSPO certification. Interestingly, as far as we know there are no other existing oil palm plantations that apply organic methods from the initial plantation stage, in all of South-East Asia. All other organic oil palm plantations that we know of developed from plantations that were first established in the conventional manner, and which were subsequently converted into organic oil palm plantations at a later stage, when the palms were already productive. Seeking to use the most biodiversity friendly method from the onset of the plantation is therefore of considerable interest, especially to assess the long term changes in biodiversity at the pilot study site when the least environmentally damaging conditions are applied. From a low-income smallholder perspective, it may also make good economic sense, as reducing the amount of chemicals used reduces the monetary cost of the initial investment. Instead, the farmers assume some additional labour costs to produce organic alternatives that they can effectively provide for free. The success and the lessons learned from the Pilot Study are expected to encourage all stakeholders (especially those within the palm oil industry, Government, and local and international organisations) to develop the oil palm sector more responsibly. The Pilot Study provides a showcase for the development of degraded land, taking into account the local social priorities of the smallholders/farmers, and the imperative of environmental protection Objectives of the monitoring of environmental parameters To achieve the goal of finding a green solution to developing oil palm on degraded land, it is crucial to monitor from the outset the environmental changes that take place at the pilot study site, from the initial stage of the degraded land, to the establishment of a mature, productive oil palm plantation. These changes are determined by the choices made by the smallholders, which have direct on the ground implications for the environment and biodiversity. In this report we use three land cover categories for the degraded area that the work is occurring in. 1) secondary forest, which refers to logged over areas that are being covered by trees again, but in the succession phase called secondary forest. The conservation area consist of this land cover; 2) planted land, which refers to all the degraded areas Figure 1. Old tree in the conservation that have been cleared and then planted with oil area palm; 3) degraded land that has not yet been cleared and planted. We refer to that as unconverted degraded land in the remainder of the report. 3 For this reason, there are two main perspectives that can be taken when considering and evaluating the different environmental changes that take place during the development of the oil palm plantation. On the one hand, one needs to consider the impact of developing the oil palm plantation at the plot, or plantation level itself. From this perspective, what is important is the zoning of the site, and the allocation of areas to different uses, such as conservation areas and oil palm areas. More precisely, the design, development and effective implementation of the land use strategy. At this level, most important from a biodiversity conservation perspective is to try to allocate the largest, contiguous, area possible for conservation. As the size of any set aside conservation area ultimately depends on those that actually own the land, the smallholders in this case, the main question is then how large an area can they be persuaded to set aside, and which conditions must prevail to effectively conserve that area? On the other hand, one needs to look at the issue from a more micro-level perspective, at the level of the land itself, within the zones established on the site. In this case, what is important is to effectively monitor and evaluate changes that occur within areas under different land uses. In the case of the pilot study these include the conservation area that has been set aside, the degraded land already cleared and planted (i.e. the planted land), and remaining degraded land not Figure 2. Land use map for the yet cleared or planted with oil palms. RSPO_Lamie plot Of course each approach is highly complementary, to establish the true impact of environmental changes when considering the existing local social situation. The data obtained also help to identify the “lessons learned” from the development of the biodiversity friendly plantation, and hence to improve the procedures and practical activities by which plantations are implemented, to minimize their impact on biodiversity. 4 1. Plantation level approach: Follow up of the extension of the conservation area and other land uses Introduction The conservation area set aside within the oil palm pilot study with smallholders is an important element when considering biodiversity within a larger oil palm landscape. For RSPO P&C, the identification and mitigation of damage to High Conservation Value Forests Figure 3: Initial condition of the Pilot Study site (before land clearing) (HCVF) is a key requirement. The question is, how to respect a set aside conservation area, or HCVF, when implementing a plantation according to RSPO P&C? Indeed, how is it possible to avoid developing environmentally important biodiversity areas when rational smallholders tend to make decisions that maximise oil palm production on their individual plots, in order to maximize possible production and revenue. The sum of each individual‟s behaviour would naturally lead to the total transformation of all the degraded land into oil palm plantation and the destruction of any HCVF or conservation area would be the most likely outcome. Under this kind of scenario, how can the locally dire, profit seeking reality, meet RSPO P&C regarding HCVF? Initially, the conservation area was defined from a normative perspective, checking against the criteria used for HCVF designation, under the principles and criteria of the RSPO. The following report explains how this conservation area within the pilot study has subsequently evolved, taking into account the social realities of the location. 1.1.Initial delineation of the conservation area according to RSPO P&C Two technical experts from YEL/PanEco defined the conservation area during a field visit on the 23rd and 24th of February, 2010.