History of land status, land use and land cover types of four private oil palm plantations in West Kalimantan Province, Indonesia

Abstract

Oil palm plantations are still believed to be the principal reason of primary forests’ damages in Southeast Asia. To verify this accusation, a survey of four private oil palm plantations was carried out in West Kalimantan Province of Indonesia, to identify the history of land status, land cover types and land use prior to the conversion to these plantations. The research was conducted using overlay maps of Business Permit with Consensus-based Forest Land Use Planning/Provincial Spatial Plan maps and permits, interpretation of Landsat images of 3 years prior and 2 years after the establishment of the plantations. Interviews with various formal and informal community leaders were also conducted. Results indicated that the original land cover types of all of the research areas (100%) were not forest when the plantations were established. Most (59.50%), were formerly community lands, while 40.50% were concession areas belonging to other companies. These results corresponded with the Landsat imagery interpretations, which showed the land cover types 1 year before the conversion were mostly shrubs (59.62%), while the remaining were secondary swamp forest (18.35%), bare land (16.46%) and swamp shrubs (5.58%). This research confirmed that the four oil palm plantations, were not responsible for deforestation.