Formulation of Kayong Utara District Action Plan for Sustainable Oil Palm
Indonesia - 10 July, 2023
In line with the National Action Plan for Sustainable Oil Palm (RAN-KSB) 2019-2024 as stipulated in Presidential Decree No.6/2019, Kayong Utara District Government has started preparing District Action Plan (RAD) for Sustainable Oil Palm (RAD-KSB) which has begun with the issuance of the Regent Decree (SK) No.195/Pangan.IV/III/2023 concerning the Team for the Preparation of District Action Plan for Sustainable Oil Palm in Kayong Utara District in March 2023. After the issuance of the decree, the initial draft has begun to be formulated in a workshop facilitated by Tropenbos Indonesia and Sawit Watch which took place on 20-21 June 2023. Participants who attended the event represented three OPDs (District Apparatus Agencies), namely District Development Planning Agency, Agriculture and Food Agency, and Kayong Utara Forest Management Unit (KPH).
The drafted RAD also contains a work plan to achieve sustainable oil palm in accordance with the RAN which aims among other things to increase the capacity and capability of smallholders, finalize land status and legalization, and utilize palm oil as a new renewable energy. The main components for implementing the RAN-KSB include strengthening data, strengthening coordination and infrastructure, increasing the capacity and capability of smallholders, managing and monitoring the environment, managing plantations and handling disputes, as well as accelerating the implementation of ISPO certification and market access.
The implementation of the RAD-KSB is expected to be able to answer land overlapping issues, improve oil palm governance including plasma issues, and increase oil palm productivity. For this reason, it will be followed by monitoring, evaluation and reporting processes to measure performance and its implementation by each OPD.
According to Edi Purwanto, Director of Tropenbos Indonesia, Tropenbos Indonesia and Sawit Watch have started efforts to support implementation of sustainable oil palm in Kayong Utara District since 2019. “At that time a GIS training was conducted for staff of government agencies in Kayong Utara District including the Plantation Agency as an effort to increase capacity to map the distribution of oil palm smallholders in Kayong Utara," he said. After that, a Forum Group Discussion (FGD) on sustainable oil palm was also held in August 2022, which was also attended by the Regent who expressed his support for the improvement of oil palm governance. Going forward, Tropenbos Indonesia will also facilitate independent oil palm smallholders to apply for STDB as the prerequisite to get ISPO certification.
Meanwhile, according to Achmad Surambo, Director of Sawit Watch, the RAD-KSB that has been drafted in the workshop is to be communicated and consulted to other parties including the OPDs who have not been involved in the workshop. For this reason, after the workshop, communication has been carried out among others, with the Public Works and Spatial Planning Agency, Public Housing Residential Areas and Environment Agency, and the Legal Department of the District Secretariat.
In order to promote sustainable oil palm, according to Achmad Surambo, at least three important components must exist, namely economic factors, which means economically profitable, social factors, which means do not cause conflict, and environmental factors, which means do not damage/harm the environment. Without these three components, the expected sustainability will not be achieved. For this reason, “These three things will try to be accommodated in this RAD-KSB,” he said.
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