CHAPTER SIX SOCIO-CULTURAL IMPACTS OF OIL PALM PLANTATIONS Government programs that do not incorporate the interests of local people as in the oil palm and transmigration programs have accumulated resentments in Jambi Province. However, the changes of production pattern and people s attitude toward the forest two things that are also discussed in this chapter may be worse than these resentments because they have degraded the quality of life of people and expanded to the more complicated environmental problems discussed in the next chapter. This chapter discusses some social and cultural issues that relate to the expansion of oil palm plantations in Jambi Province. The lack of data is one shortcoming of this discussion. However the issues elaborated here are very important since they involve substantial changes in local people s attitudes. 6.1. Background Before starting the discussion about social and cultural impacts of oil palm plantations, it is important to define the context of the local people in Jambi. The local people are the Malays and the forest people, while the transmigrants are generally excluded from the category of local people. The forest people, well known as Suku Anak Dalam (SAD), occupy three locations: in the area along Lintas Sumatra road (1,260), in Bukit Duabelas National Park (1,100), and in Bukit Tigapuluh National Park (365) (Thahar, 2000a). For the past thirty years, the government has tried to settle them in a local transmigration program by building houses and supplying food for a certain period time, but this program failed. The forest people left the location and came back to the forest after the government stopped the food supply. Their life is under pressure due to the presence of industrial forest 54
plantations, the transmigration program, and large plantation projects that have threatened their source of livelihood. They usually harvest forest products such as rattan, honey, and many kinds of fruit for their own use and for sale. Hence, it is not surprising that currently these people are often found begging for food from the villagers. The Malays are much more prosperous than the SAD since traditionally they were well-off in terms of having land and farms and a better education. However, currently many people consider there is a sharp decline in the welfare of Malays due to growing population pressure and an inability to adapt to the changes in their environment. 6.2. The Change of Local People s Production Patterns One reason why many people have opposed the oil palm plantation program launched by the Governor of Jambi is that oil palm expansion has changed the production pattern of local people. For generations local people owned and managed their land but have now given up their land to be only labourers for private companies (Sukarjaputra et al., 2001). The pattern is different from that based on crops owned by local people, such as smallholder rubber plantations, where local people are the owners of the land and are not dependent on other parties for obtaining inputs or marketing their products. According to Rivani (2001), the domination of big private companies in the plantation sector happens because government has limited funds to support the small-scale agribusiness sector, while the big private companies, by using some incentives given by governments, are able to attract foreign financial institutions to fund their projects. In addition, as discussed in chapter two, the letter of intent between the IMF and the Indonesian Government supports the expansion of large-scale plantations, especially the oil palm sector. The change of production pattern is also encouraged by the implementation of NES and KPPA schemes that were previously intended to empower the farmers. In fact, these schemes give monopoly power to the 55
private companies. These companies determine and dominate the production process from beginning to end. They also have the right to control the output price. The farmers (local and transmigrants) can do nothing since the schemes require them to follow the scheme agreement. 6.3. The Change of People s Attitude toward the Forest Customary land rights have existed in Indonesia for centuries. In Jambi, some areas of forest are regarded as customary land to which every individual in the surrounding villages has equal right of access to harvest timbers and other forest products. According to Suyanto et al. (2000), customary land rights in Jambi guaranteed the same right of the communities to access the forest but not to own it. There are two types of communal land use, namely, tanah batin and rimbo bulian. Tanah batin allows the members to plant food crops but not to plant trees in order to avoid an individual land claim, while rimbo bulian lets the members log bulian (a kind of valuable timber) for domestic use (house construction in that village) but they are prohibited to sell it. The Basic Agrarian Law (BAL) of 1960 required owners to register their land, but this left communal forests with no formal status. According to Contextual Information for Indonesia (n.d.), forestland cannot be privately owned or occupied. A company that intends to extract timber has to obtain concessionary rights. Even though the local people have been accessing the forest and harvesting forest products for their own use for generations, it will not improve their formal right. However, the big companies that then hold concessionary rights are allowed to ban them from entering the concession areas. This then led to a conflict of interest due to the increasing numbers of people struggling to meet their basic needs. Hence local people had no choice but to get involved in commercial forest use. Some acquired forest land and obtained certificates to formalize their rights, or established partnerships with 56
big companies to exploit the forest without the consent of other villagers. The government at that time supported this. Sardi (2002) states that the change of societal attitudes toward the forest was provoked by the presence of these big companies. If local people were not involved in exploiting the forests, there would be none left for them. The feeling of now or never changed their attitude from being very concerned about the sustainability of the forest to being solely profit-oriented. Currently only indigenous people in Jambi (Suku Anak Dalam) still have access to forest since the forest is their home as well as their source of livelihood. WARSI (2002) reports that the SAD have their own way to protect their forest from outsiders, that is, by establishing farms in the border area that separates the forest from a Malay village. However, this way is not effective any more since the villagers often break agreements with these people in order to log timber or establish their own farms in the forest area. It seems that the neighbouring villagers increasingly ignore the interests of the forest people. 6.4. Confrontation between Farmers and Private Oil Palm Companies Conflicts have occurred in some districts in Jambi where oil palm has been extensively planted. The farmers often feel hopeless to fight for their rights through formal channels and consequently engage in acts of anarchy by occupying the land, confiscating company assets, or stealing the FFB from the plantations. WALHI Jambi (2002) has tabulated 28 cases of social conflict between farmers and oil palm companies and between local people and transmigrants that occurred during the period from August 2000 to December 2001. The causes of conflict are grouped into four categories, namely, unclear land status, unsatisfactory implementation of agreements, conflict between locals and transmigrants, and other matters (Table 6.1 and Appendix 1). 57
Table 6.1 Social Conflicts Associated with Oil Palm Plantations, August 2000 to December 2001 Types of Conflict No. of cases Unclear land status (A) 10 Unsatisfactory implementation of agreements (B) 10 Transmigrants-locals (C) 3 Other matters (D) 5 Source: WALHI Jambi (2002). See appendix 1 for details Among the four sources of conflict, conflict about land status and unsatisfactory implementation of agreements recorded the highest number of cases. Most cases actually began in the Soeharto era but surfaced in the reform era. The local people demanded that the companies return their land for which they received very low compensation, or their customary land that has been used without their consent and for which they received no compensation at all. The next source of conflict, categorized as unsatisfactory implementation of agreements, in fact still involves the land issue. For instance, local people demanded their share of land in KPPA or NES schemes but the companies could not meet the demands since they had actually never started to establish oil palm, or the companies delayed giving the land to the farmers without a clear explanation. The third category of conflict involved locals and transmigrants who mainly came from Java. Many people claim there is no potential for ethnic conflict in Jambi Province but the three cases that happened in 2001 prove that this province is not free from such conflicts. In these cases, the locals complained about the increasing share of land going to the transmigrants. The conflicts grouped under the other matters in Table 6.1 have emerged due to increased awareness of the local people about their position as a consequence of oil palm expansion. Two important issues from the data tabulated by WALHI Jambi (2002) were that the company had to recruit the workers from the villages where the plantation was located and that the companies had to stop expanding plantations in the forest area. 58
WALHI Jambi also recorded repressive action or intimidation by the company s security guards in the above cases. Up to now, the conflict between farmers and villagers with the plantation companies has ended in favour of the companies. 6.5. The Increase of FFB Theft Even though there are no data about the number of thefts of FFB affecting large plantation companies, newspaper reports indicate an increase in such acts. There are several reasons why this crime has increased. First is the perception of unfairness relating to the establishment of oil palm plantations in the past. This perception derives from issues such as the occupation of land, the amount of compensation paid, and the failure of companies to honour the initial agreements. Hopeless farmers then justify theft as one way to take revenge for this injustice. The second reason is the presence of CPO processing units that do not have their own oil palm plantations. In order to get supply, the owners buy FFB from farmers, some of whom are involved in oil palm development schemes. These CPO processing units set a higher price than the companies, buy FFB without too much selection, and give the farmers payment in cash at the time of the transaction (Estate Office of Jambi Province, 2004). Hence there is a strong incentive to steal FFB to supply these mills. The third reason is the decline of farmers income since the economic crisis hit Indonesia several years ago. When the price of CPO in the international market declined, the farm-gate price of FFB declined sharply, while the farmers had invested much money to buy fertilizer, quite apart from the value of their labour. For farmers involved in NES or KPPA schemes, life became more difficult since their payments had 30% deducted in order to pay their debts to the scheme. It is understandable that farmers in such conditions 59
often demanded government to intervene to persuade companies not to deduct the 30% for a period and to set a higher price for FFB (Thahar, 1999e). 6.6. Conclusion Social and cultural changes have occurred in Jambi leading to actions categorized as crimes, but provoked by perceptions of unfair actions on the part of the large plantation companies. Underlying this deep concern is the transformation of land ownership from farmers to the large companies that in turn has led to the marginalization of local people. Some factors have been identified as marginalizing local people. These include the national land law that dilutes customary land rights, oil palm development schemes that favour large companies, too much power in the hands of large oil palm companies, and lack of company goodwill to fulfil the agreements in these schemes. Social resentment has also emerged towards the presence of transmigrants in the area. It is common knowledge that the transmigrants get more benefits from their involvement in the development of oil palm plantations than the locals themselves. It is understandable that demonstrations have been held by the locals, demanding companies make a significant contribution to the welfare of local society in the form of recruiting more labour from the local community and ceasing forestland clearance. Figure 6.1 below depicts the pressure perceived by local people in relation to the presence of government programs. The local people are under pressure because of the increasing areas being allocated to transmigrants, oil palm plantations, timber concessionary companies and industrial forest plantations, while they are only labourers in these programs. The economic crisis that has hit Indonesia has worsened their condition. The national parks are also under threat from such expansion. 60
Figure 6.1 Local People under Pressure in Jambi Source: Sardi (2002) 61