| dc.description |
Indonesian palm oil plantation has developed very rapidly from 4.16 million hectares in 2000, to 11.3 million ha in 2015. The development of oil palm plantations was not only carried out on mineral soil, but some of them (1.7 million ha) was done on peatlands. These conditions have led to strong protests from several Non Governmental Organizations (NGO), inside and outside of the country. This then forced Indonesian government to issue moratorium of oil palm plantation development on forests and peatlands in 2011. The policy was later extended in 2015, and there is possibility that oil palm replanting on peatlands is not permitted as well. This will result in neglection of oil palm plantations on peatlands which eventually will cause to the environmental damage. The paper aims to provide an overview of some efforts to save the environmental damage of oil palm plantations on peatlands which are already unproductive. Analyses were performed by using financial feasibility criteria i.e. Internal Rate of Return (IRR), Net Present Value (NPV), Benefitt Cost Ratio (B/C), and Payback Period. The analysis showed that one effort that could be done is converting oil palm crops to sago palm. The investment cost required to convert oil palm crops to plant sago on peatlands is relatively lower than the cost for oil palm rejuvenation, but it may take longer time to wait until sago plants could be harvested, hence the return on capital would be slower. In order to shorten the waiting period, the conversion is done with the insertion system of sago palm when the oil palm plants are still productive. The plant conversion is technically and financially feasible and provide positive effects to the environment, especially on the reduction of CO2 emissions on peatlands.
Keywords: oil palm, conversion, peatlands, sago |
|