Protection of biodiversity in concession of sustainable palm oil

Abstract

Abstract The increasing population growth is in line with the increasing world demand for vegetable oil. In 2050, the world population is projected to reach 9.8 billion people. With this population, the world’s vegetable oil needs reach 310 million tons. Total vegetable oil production in 2018 was only 200.8 million tons. The oil crops biologically have a potential to produce vegetable oil much more than with other plants in the same area of land. It means that it is economically more efficient than others. However, an unavoidable fact is that the expansion of oil palm plantations in Indonesia has encroached on forest areas, destroying biodiversity, and threatening environmental sustainability. Of the 9.1 million hectares of deforestation occurred in 2001 to 2016, 2.1 million hectares or 23% of the national deforestation turned to oil palm. In addition, of the 16.8 million hectares of Indonesian palm oil cover, 3.4 million hectares or 20.2% of oil palms are in forest areas. This article aims to diagnose the norms of biodiversity protection with the approach of protecting high conservation value areas and high carbon stocks in oil palm plantation concessions. Normatively referring to the concept of sustainable palm oil plantations, companies are obliged to protect areas that have high biodiversity values and high carbon stocks in their concession areas and are prohibited from being converted. This norm is very important to protect biodiversity in oil palm concessions. Unfortunately, Indonesia’s positive law does not yet have an optimal legal framework to protect this area, so it is necessary to strengthen specific norms and policies to protect biodiversity in sustainable palm oil plantation concessions.

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