September 2019 is exactly one year of the issuance of Presidential Instruction (Inpres) No. 8 of 2018 concerning the Postponement and Evaluation of Palm Oil Plantation Licensing and Increasing Palm Oil Plantation Productivity. Through this policy, the government is trying to improve sustainable management of oil palm plantations, provide legal certainty, protect and protect the environment, including reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, as well as increasing the development of oil palm growers and increasing the productivity of oil palm plantations.
The moratorium and evaluation of oil palm plantations is a good momentum to improve the governance of oil palm plantations in Indonesia. The model used in the oil moratorium is the data and information will flow from the district / city to the national moratorium on palm oil working teams via the province, where the government has issued several priority areas namely North Sumatra, Jambi, Riau, South Sumatra, West Kalimantan, Kalimantan Central and East Kalimantan. This is with the assumption that these areas are the areas where the largest oil palm plantations, meaning that through the 7 priority areas more than half of the oil palm plantations have been reached.
This paper is a continuation of the results of monitoring and documentation of the work and achievements in the implementation of Presidential Instruction No. 8 of 2018 in the initial semester. This paper also hopes to provide information regarding the challenges of implementing Presidential Instruction No. 8 of 2018, and further elaboration of how to link this policy with other policies so that the Inpres can be grounded and implemented well in one year.
There are several findings in the implementation of Presidential Instruction No. 8 of 2018 in one semester, including the implementation of Presidential Instruction in the first semester is still preparatory and coordinating, there are no significant achievements. There have not been any overlapping cases that are of public concern resolved through this Inpres. Of the 25 Provinces and 247 Regencies / Cities that have oil palm plantations, the majority have not yet responded to this Inpres (19 provinces, and 239 Regencies / Cities). The release of forest areas for oil palm plantations, namely PT HIP (Hardaya Inti Plantations) in Buol, Central Sulawesi in November 2018 through a Decree of the Minister of the Environment and Forestry indicated ‘backs up’ to the Inpres. On the other hand, there are several provincial and district governments that have a strong commitment to implementing this Inpres including Aceh Province, Buol District (Central Sulawesi), and Sanggau (West Kalimantan), which are indicated by the birth of local policies (regional regulations or regional head instructions).
Some recommendations in implementing Presidential Instruction No 8 of 2018 include, 1) The central government needs to allocate a special budget for the implementation of the Presidential Instruction for regions that have commitments; 2) The work team at the national level needs to prepare a technical guidance document on the implementation of the Inpres that can be referred to by the regional government; 3) Provincial and district areas that do not yet have oil palm plantations or have good forest areas should also be priority areas; 4) There needs to be a mechanism to promote the principle of openness in terms of data, information and updates on the progress of the implementation of the Inpres so that it can be monitored and accessed by the public or civil society groups and 5) A communication platform between the national work team and regional government is needed to facilitate coordination.
Download document Laporan Satu Tahun Implementasi Inpres Moratorium Sawit
