The use of spatial analysis in confirming the environmental issue of oil palm and biodiversity

Indonesian oil palm plantations are seen to be the reason of damage to primary forests and consequently have impacted on decreasing the tropical biodiversity. This has become an environmental issue that is detrimental to Indonesia as the world’s largest exporter of palm oil, one that requires scientific confirmation. A study was conducted on four large-scale oil palm plantations in Central Kalimantan and used survey data and spatial data as the analytical tool to look at the history of forest and land cover, as well as types of land use prior to the conversion to plantation areas. The results of the study confirmed that all the studied oil palm plantations, did not originate from primary forests, but instead from secondary forests and shrubs. The land uses prior to the companies’ operation, were forest concession areas and communities’ dry fields. The land status of most of the plantations at the time of obtaining the plantation business permit did not state forest areas. Only a small area of the plantations was originally state-owned forest area, with a total of only 3.66% production forests and 0.66% of conversion production forests.