Manokwari, - Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Papua, Dr. Agus Sumule suggested that the West Papua Provincial Government implement a Papua-style Sustainable Palm Management model, where the land of customary landowners (adat communities) must be leased by a palm oil company, so that every year the landowner community can get big money, even have an endowment fund.
"I'm not talking about new oil palm (but of 179,656 hectares of land that already has a permit but has not yet carried out development in West Papua)," said Agus Sumule when expressing his views at the Sustainable Palm Oil Workshop Workshop, Wednesday (02/19/2020) in Manokwari .
Agus then gave an example of the calculation of the benefits obtained by the community's customary owners from the model. For example over 170 thousand hectares of land. And every hectare is rented Rp 200 thousand from the community, that means there is Rp 34 billion received by the community in the first year.
"The second year was also Rp 34 billion, the 25th year if he did not receive it at all, only interest was used, then the Papuan people of 170 thousand hectares, he would have an endowment of Rp 850 billion," he said.
If the bank gives only 5 percent interest, he continued, then the indigenous people will get approximately 42.5 billion annually. How many indigenous people are there? maybe not more than 35 thousand in my opinion, if the unit is that wide (179,655 hectares). All can be pilots. And if we use the eternal fund model, until God comes back, the Rp 42.5 billion will be available every year. Friends of the palm oil entrepreneurs are calm, because there is nothing to disturb, there is no Brimob that needs to be deployed.
Agus even repeated the statement of the former Governor of Papua, Barnabas Suebu regarding the position of indigenous peoples in spatial planning. "In all the spatial plan that you are talking to, which space for indigenous people? I think we have an obligation together to pay attention to this. Well, the part of the endowment fund that I talked about earlier, is the space that we can provide for indigenous people, "said the former expert staff of the Governor of Papua.
The reason for using the endowment fund, said Agus, was because it was related to the threat of the forest and the customary community owners. "We give permission for palm oil to come in, it's the same thing for us, companies make forest damage. There is no story, surely the forest is damaged. Biodiversity is definitely lost and nothing else. The question is, for those damaged resources, how can we make sure there are continued benefits for the children who have the place. because the forest is gone, what can we contact? The answer is the Abadi Fund. So even though the forest does not exist, he can receive benefits. At least that is what we made, "said Agus Sumule.
Responding to that, the moderator who is also one of the officials from the Food Crops, Horticulture and Plantation Office of West Papua Province asked Agus Sumule to make his proposal in writing and submit it to the West Papua Provincial Government. But Agus Sumule immediately replied to the statement.
"That was already in the proposal of the Perdasus Sustainable Province. Unipa already included it. Maybe you have never read the perdasus proposal, "Agus Sumule replied. *)
Author: Ab Yomo