JAYAPURA – The Papua Provincial Government encourages the development of oil palm plantations to coincide with rejuvenation efforts.
This is to avoid the development of oil palm in Keerom Regency, which is no longer the livelihood of the community, because there is no sustainable program, the production results have decreased.
“Therefore, it is very important to collaborate on partnerships between the government, industry and farming communities in developing oil palm plantations that are economically socially and environmentally sustainable,” said Papua People’s Welfare Functional Expert Policy Analyst Anike Rawar when opening the Papua Province Oil Palm Institutional Strengthening and Partnership Workshop, in Jayapura City.
Annike asked the local Association of Indonesian Palm Oil Farmers (Apkasindo) to start encouraging the development of people’s oil palm plantations that are economically, socially and environmentally sustainable. This will have an impact on the community’s economy.
“For that reason, once again we really appreciate the activities to strengthen partnerships and institutions of smallholder oil palm plantations because as is known, the issues surrounding oil palm are very complex so it is necessary to conduct workshops to increase understanding about sustainability,” Anike said.
Chairman of Apkasindo Papua Albert Yoku said this activity was attended by 50 people from five provinces in Papua, namely Papua, Papua Mountains, Central Papua, Southwest Papua and West Papua.
“The purpose of this activity is to provide understanding to oil palm farmers to understand the development of oil palm plantations in Indonesia so that in the future there will be sustainability of oil palm replanting in Papua,” he said.
Albert added that throughout Papua there are around 62 hectares managed by either the community or the company but he saw that the cultivation was not yet optimal.
“For this reason, it is hoped that with the strengthening workshop, the results of palm oil production in Tanah Papua can be maximized so that in the future Papua can present a palm oil factory to produce CPO or palm oil,” he said.
