Independent smallholder oil palm expansion and its impact on deforestation: Case study in kampar district, Riau Province, Indonesia

Abstract

Independent oil palm plantation smallholders are those who managed their plantations free of technical assistances and agricultural inputs from oil palm estates or government. Although their numbers have been increasing rapidly in Indonesia in recent years, however, the magnitude of their impacts on tropical forest deforestation remained largely unevaluated. The objectives of this study were to explore the history of land use, land cover changes and land status since the start of oil palm plantation activities. The study was conducted from March to April 2016 and carried out in 30 ha of independent oil palm smallholders in Kampar District of Riau Province. To identify the land status, Forest Land Use by Consensus (TGHK) and Provincial Land Use Planning (RTRWP) maps were overlaid using satellite images of the independent oil palm smallholding areas. Landsat imageries of three years prior to the oil palm establishment were used to assess the forest cover changes. In addition, from the local perspectives, interviews were conducted with the smallholders and the elders of the local communities, to identify the prior land uses. Based on land status, the results showed that 47% of the independent smallholders' areas were derived from logged over forest, while the other 53% were derived from non-forested land. The land uses before the establishment of the smallholdings were mostly comprised of general-purpose field activities and forest concessions. The land cover prior to the conversion to oil palm plantations comprised of rubber plantations, secondary forest, and shrubs. Results of this research indicated that most of the areas where oil palm plantations were established and planted between 1990 and 2002, were originated from degraded secondary forest, dryfields, and shrub-land, and were not converted from primary forests. These findings implied that deforestation did not occur in the tropical forests of Kampar, Riau Province.