the United Nations development Programme (UNDP) green commodities Programme (GCP) work with stakeholders oil palm to ensure contribution of this sector to the national economy becomes sustainable in order to prevent further forest fires and deforestation.
Forests and peatlands disastrous fires last year are still fresh in our collective memory. There are some months when the rains started to support efforts against the fire, made clear the haze and life in the affected provinces in Sumatra, Kalimantan, Singapore and parts of Malaysia could return to normal .
But he also predicted that the next set of lights was just around the corner - the climate anomaly El Niño is still strong, should continue with serious droughts in early 2016. This has galvanize many national and international authorities and response organizations. Plans and programs that have been put on the table for some time suddenly were activated at the same time as decisions on how to navigate the route mitigation come.
One of the main actors in this context is the UNDP Green Commodities program. Its global leader Andrew Bovarnick, recently spent a week in Indonesia for meetings with government officials in the ministries of agriculture, forestry, cooperatives and small and medium enterprises (SMEs), representatives of provincial authorities and district, oil palm plantations, NGOs and other stakeholders.
Andrew Bovarnick, Global Head of Global Commodities UNDP Programme
Bovarnick spoke to Indonesia Expat on programs to ensure that the area of palm oil contributions to the national economy become sustainable, starting describe the extent of GCP UNDP's involvement in the oil palm sector in Indonesia.
In partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture, GCP is involved in the establishment and strengthening of multi-stakeholder action plan to reach a production of sustainable palm oil. GCP also works closely with oil palm in Indonesia platform, which was launched in 2010 by the Ministry of Agriculture. Its main objectives :. 1) increase the productivity of smallholder 2) improvement of environmental management and monitoring of the oil palm production areas 3) governance and mediation - particularly regarding the empowerment of communities, and disputes land ownership
cooperation and sharing among a large number of stakeholders in different hues of information is extremely difficult. But fires last year has instilled a sense of urgency and a conviction that without major changes in the industry's operating procedures, catastrophes increasingly severe are inevitable. The division is standing with his back against the wall, so to speak. Cooperation and for the same positive, lasting results is the only viable path.
This multi-stakeholder approach, of course, requires a change in attitude and behavior of stakeholders. Our discussion then centered on how this could be achieved as the opportunity cost of change is very high - in other words, making sustainable sector will profoundly reduce the levels of current income which producers benefit palm oil. The standard method of operation is still expanding [legally or illegally] encroach on primary forest, which has the added advantage that it gives investment funds from the sale of commercial timber felled.
Increased production and income, however, can also be obtained by increasing productivity, especially small farmers through effective extension services and training, and access to good seeds and capital quality.
According Bovarnick, "multinationals can not prevent deforestation palm oil on themselves, almost 50 percent of fires are related small farmers."
It is therefore of vital importance to include them in the action plans for sustainability This will be possible only by improving the productivity of their plots -.. by the time they produce less than half the yield ( ha) of land
by improving these yields almost doubled their income could be achieved without increasing the cultivated area, which usually involves illegal encroachment on protected forests and national parks .
the increase in productivity is not only the most important option to increase the income of small farmers, but also large areas. When the areas of Indonesia produce on average 30 tonnes per hectare, the yield rate in Malaysia is 60 tonnes per hectare. As in the case of small farmers, while productivity was in
increased, it would be the production without felling and burning a hectare of forest.
But according Bovarnick, a very important problem to be solved first. "Mapping the exact boundaries of the areas, and the location and size of smallholder plots" He adds: "Up-to -Date cards with these characteristics are unfortunately not yet available. and without this information, it will not be possible to design the extension and training program. "
the number of small farmers is estimated at between one and two million, a number that must be stated more precisely, while also geo-referencing the location and size of their farms.
The data improvement program will also cover the inhabitants of native forests, which at present are victims rather than beneficiaries of developments [achieved by the oil palm sector]. Better data and information on these communities, their sites and nomadic movements, the location of their water resources, hunting grounds, gardens, sacred sites, burial sites and all other aspects of their lives, strengthen their land claims and avoid land conflicts.
main partnerUNDP GCP is the Department of Agriculture. There are, however, many other public and private bodies with interests in the oil palm sector. In order to avoid overlapping and duplication of efforts due to organizational problems, co-chairs have been created that provide managerial and decision-making power, for example, representatives of the Ministry of Forestry. It seems to work reasonably well.
"But, of course, integration and transparency remains a problem because the number of actors and organizations is very large, and what's more is growing," said Bovarnick.
After the Ministry of Agriculture launched the Palm oil Platform Indonesia, the Indonesian Chamber of commerce (KADIN) created the Indonesia Palm oil Pledge. the mission was to create an environment in Indonesia, which allows and promotes the production of sustainable palm oil that is free deforestation extends benefits, and improves the competitiveness of Indonesia's market.
"cooperation and sharing of data is clearly the utmost importance. We will eventually get there, "and according Bovarnick, probably much faster than originally planned.