The Rimba Raya Biodiversity Reserve REDD Project

environmental impacts and the need for economic development,but few local people appear to benefit. Revenues are of coursebeing generated from palm oil. The price of crude palm oil hasrisen steadily over the past few years, with the exception of thecurrent economic crisis. However, many of the villagers whohave given up their land to become smallholders or to work onplantations find that their situation has not improved. Reportspublished over the last 10 years have consistently shown that theconditions of smallholders and laborers working on or linked tolarge plantations are often very poor.When oil palm companies seek to acquire land and permits toexpand their operations, they not only hold out the promise ofsmallholdings, but also claim to provide employment for localcommunities and indigenous peoples. The promise ofemployment is a central argument used to convince communitiesto accept conversion of their land to oil palm plantations. Inreality, the opportunities created are short-­‐lived. Once theplantation has been established, many of the full-­‐time contractedpositions are replaced with casual jobs at lower wages offeringfewer protections. Plantation managers often hire migrantworkers for these jobs, further disenfranchising indigenouspeople. While the minimum wage often does not meet thegovernment’s own standards for a decent livelihood, plantationwages, even for contracted workers, are frequently at or belowthe minimum wage.Observers comment that many local people have little choice butto work as casual laborers on oil palm estates. Though they maywell be underpaid, transformation of their land to oil palmmonoculture leaves them few employment options.The lack of community land rights, corruption in permitallocations, and irregularities in community consultations onlyaccelerate the expansion of oil palm plantations in Indonesia.The clearing of forests also results in the loss of subsistenceresources such as bush-­‐meat, forest fruit, forest vegetables,medicinal plants, roofing, building materials, firewood, andmaterials for traditional crafts. Community agro-­‐forestry plotsmay also be lost, and communities bear the brunt of externalitiessuch as fires (set to clear the plantations), floods (which arereported to follow plantation establishment), and a loss of accessto clean water.‘Without-­‐project’ effects on communities within Project ZoneOil palm plantation expansion is a cornerstone of thedevelopment program that the Seruyan District has implementedsince 2000 in an effort to increase the region’s income. Forestareas near TPNP (including the Project Area) have been licensedto more than eight oil palm companies, and thus far four havebegun plantation development activities. Some of thesecompanies have been operating since 2005 (based on the licensearea issued by the Seruyan District Head) in upstream villagesinside the Project Zone, including Bahaur, Paren, Parang Batang,Tanjung Hanau, Ulak Batu and Palingkau. Without the RimbaRaya project, the other four are likely to commence developmentin the near future.Oil palm development, if conducted in accordance with currentlaws, would see companies working in partnership with localcommunities to develop land with the expectation ofstrengthening the local economy and eventually improving thewelfare of local communities. To date, however, the process ofland acquisition by oil palm companies in the Project Zone has122