Conversion of forests into oil palm plantations in West Kalimantan, Indonesia: Insights from actors' power and its dynamics

Abstract

Oil palm plantations have been touted as one of the main drivers of deforestation in Indonesia. This paper aims to explain how oil palm companies accumulate power that enables them to control forestland and convert it into oil palm. Specifically, this paper identifies empirical evidence pointing to why oil palm companies emerge as powerful actors in land use conflicts. This paper uses the case of forest lands claimed by different actors – i.e. a timber plantation company, an oil palm company, and local communities – in West Kalimantan, Indonesia. Before the decentralisation policy, the interests of timber plantations were principally safeguarded by coercion from the forest ministry. The timber company was also supported by local communities by promising financial incentives to them. Following the decentralisation policy, additional actors get involved in the land use conflicts leading to more complex power interplays. In fact, some forestlands licensed for timber plantations are used by the oil palm company. Oil palm interests resonate with the economic interests of local governments, who use their legal mandates on land use allocation to facilitate the establishment of oil palm. The power of the oil palm company is also enhanced by the support from local communities, to which it handed more financial incentives than those of the timber plantation. It also used dominant information of customary claims and land appropriation by the ministry of forestry, with which it persuades local communities to pressurize government institutions to support oil palm operations.