Background

Indonesia’s oil palm plantations have grown by almost three times in the area over the past 25 years due to their high economic value (Faostat 2013; BPS 2021; Infosawit 2022). Since 2008, Indonesia has become the world’s leading producer of palm oil, contributing 48% of the world’s total volume of palm oil production. With an area of no less than 16,32 million hectares (56% of which are privately owned and state-owned enterprises, while the rest are smallholder oil palm plantations), oil palm plantations have various positive impacts including generating state foreign exchange, overcoming rural poverty problems (Wigena et al. 2009), providing employment opportunities to accommodate a workforce of around 21,49 million people (Ditjenbun 2021) and various other positive effects.

Despite this achievement, there have been accusations that oil palm plantations originate from either primary forests or secondary forests and have led to deforestation (Thiollay 1999; Donald 2004; Dumbrell and Hill 2005; Sawit Watch 2017), resulting in biodiversity decline (Koh and Willcove 2008; Tscharntke et al. 2011), and decreased plant diversity (Benayas et al. 2007; Stevenson and Aldana 2008; Paciencia and Prado 2005). Nature Climate Change reported in 2014 that Indonesia lost over 6 million hectares of primary forest from 2000 to 2012. According to Fitzherdbert et al. (2008) the conversion of forest to oil palm results in a 16% increase in deforestation. One of the articles written by Wicke et al. (2011) reported that of the 9,7 million deforestation that occurred during the period 1997-2003 and 27% (2,6 million ha) had been converted to oil palm.

Despite being debatable and not scientifically valid, these allegations have had a very debilitating impact. They are detrimental to Indonesia’s position in global trade because it has been considered responsible for destroying primary natural forests in the Southeast Asian region. On May 16, 2023, the European Union officially enforced the European Union Deforestation-free Regulation (EUDR). The purpose of this regulation is to ensure that products entering the EU market are from legal sources and do not cause deforestation. The EUDR requires companies that are registered in EU member states to ensure that the timber, palm oil, soy, coffee, cocoa, rubber, and livestock imported or exported are not produced on deforested land after December, 31, 2020. Thus, the companies are obligated to trace the commodity back to the land where it was produced.

The Indonesian government believes that the regulation’s implementation will impact the Indonesia’s commodity exports to the European Union, especially on products that are at risk of deforestation. High-risk products receive an additional duty of 8%, medium risk at 6%, and low risk at 4%. Verification of products entering Europe is necessary to avoid being subject to these additional duties. This requires an immediate development of a Deforestation Verification or Certification Method/System for the creation of oil palm plantations and palm oil mills that are scientifically valid and legitimately recognized by the European Union countries.

One approach that can be used to prepare Deforestation Certification Methods/Systems is to trace the “History of the Origin of Land Status, History of Land Use and Development of Plantations Land Cover”. The research collaboration between the Institute of Research and Community Outreach (LPPM) IPB University with BPDPKS in 2015 to 2018 and between the Faculty of Forestry and Environment IPB University with BPDPKS from 2019 to 2020 and with GAPKI in 2017 showed that data and information on “History of the Origin of the Status, History of Use and Development of for Oil Palm Plantations Land Cover” in various provinces were relatively easy to obtain and scientifically valid. Furthermore, to gain legitimacy both nationally and internationally, a discussion with a range of experts from several countries with relevant scientific disciplines is necessary. Therefore, the 4th ICNREC carries the theme “Origin of Land Status, History of Land Use, and Development of Plantation Land Cover“.

As Indonesia’s leading source of foreign exchange today, the strategic importance of palm oil commodities must be considered and to avoid future negative systemic impacts on the progress of the Indonesian palm oil industry. Therefore, it is necessary to prepare a method/system for certification/verification of deforestation based on historical data and information on the origin of land status, history of land use, and development of land cover.

Objective

The purpose of the 4th International Conference on Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation is to objectively and scientifically discuss the controversy about the definition of “deforestation” and formulate a “method of verifying/certifying the level of deforestation of an oil palm plantation and palm oil mill” through tracing “the origin of the status, history of land use and development of oil palm plantations land cover”. The formulation of the results of the discussions of many experts from various parts of the world, should be recognized/legitimized by the European Union and other countries. This will make it easier for the palm oil industries to continue maintaining their CPO exports to countries that are members of the European Union. The collected papers will be published in a Scopus-indexed proceeding.