Contested territorialization and biophysical expansion of oil palm plantations in Indonesia

Highlights

• Oil palm plantations in Indonesia have grown exponentially since the 1960s.

• Plantation expansion is tied to territorialization and reterritorialization.

• Distinct phases of centralization and decentralization are identified and linked to (re)territorialization.

• Oil palm plantation expansion forms part of an extractive regime.

• Territorialization is heavily contested and competing claims to land are made.

Abstract

Palm oil is used in human nutrition and industrial products including cosmetics and biodiesel. Exponential growth in oil palm land and palm oil production in Indonesia currently make the country the world’s largest producer of this vegetable oil. The expansion of oil palm plantations is linked to processes of territorialization and reterritorialization from the 1960s until today. Under the so-called New Order of Suharto from 1966 onwards, territorialization processes were geared toward achieving centralization. Oil palm plantations were instrumental in exercising this central control over the Outer Islands and simultaneously provided an important export commodity for the opening of the Indonesian economy. In the wake of the 1997/1998 Asian economic crisis and with the end of Suharto’s rule, Indonesia entered a period of reform marked by decentralization and related reterritorialization processes. Oil palm plantations continued to grow as foreign investment and plantation ownership by private businesses became increasingly relevant. Based on the size and composition of Indonesian material use, the argument can be made that territorialization and reterritorialization processes played a decisive role in establishing and upholding extractivism as a development pathway. The specific forms of (re)territorialization in the expansion of plantation agriculture in Indonesia, however, are contested and associated with competing claims for alternative forms of territorialization.

Introduction

Palm oil, made from the mesocarp of the palm fruit, plays an increasingly important role in human nutrition both in terms of its direct use and as an ingredient in processed foods. Between 1962 and 2012, global palm oil consumption increased by a factor of 7 from 0.3 to 2.2 kilograms per person and year (kg/cap/a); only for soybean oil is consumption in human nutrition higher (FAO, 2014). However, palm oil is not used for food alone: While, in 1962, approximately one quarter of global palm oil production was used for non-food industrial purposes, this share increased to over 50% by 2009, corresponding to a higher amount than for any other vegetable oil (FAO, 2014).¹ Vegetable oils are the most important feedstock for biodiesel production and in 2013, approximately 10% of global vegetable oil production was used for biofuels (OECD and FAO, 2014). The majority of this vegetable oil stems from rapeseed and, to a lesser degree, sunflower seed; palm oil only makes up a small share globally but is an important biofuel feedstock in Southeast Asia (Zhou and Thomson, 2009). At the same time, with comparatively high yields per hectare, palm oil output is expected to continue to grow, most notably in the major producers and exporters Indonesia and Malaysia as well as in some Latin American and African countries (OECD and FAO, 2014).

Between 1962 and 2012, global oil palm land expanded by approximately 13 million hectares (Megahectares: Mha), making oil palm plantations the fastest growing monoculture in the world (Gerber, 2011). Almost half of this growth (6 Mha) occurred in Indonesia which produced 47% of global palm oil output in 2012 (FAO, 2014). While Indonesia’s history of palm oil production dates back to the early 20th century when large plantations were first established in Sumatra (Hartley, 1977), the growth of palm oil production in the latter half of the 20th and the early 21st century was unprecedented. By 2011, oil palm fruit accounted for 35% of the country’s total agricultural harvest in units of mass. In the two decades between 1991 and 2011 alone, oil palm plantations expanded from an area corresponding to less than 0.5% to more than 3% of Indonesia’s land area (FAO, 2014).

This oil palm expansion constitutes a risk to ecosystems and biodiversity (Fitzherbert et al., 2008, Koh and Wilcove, 2008) and has a significant impact on climate change through associated deforestation and drainage of peat lands (Fargione et al., 2008, Germer and Sauerborn, 2008, Hooijer et al., 2006, Reijnders and Huijbregts, 2008). The magnitude and speed at which these changes occurred have lead to social conflict and the dispossession of people from their livelihood resources. This link has been observed for the expansion of oil palm plantations in Indonesia (Colchester et al., 2006, Colchester and Chao, 2013, Larsen et al., 2014, Marti, 2008) and in other countries (e.g., Cramb and Sujang, 2011, Mingorría et al., 2014), as well as more generally for the growth of industrial tree plantations in the global South (Gerber, 2011).

Along with the physical expansion of oil palm plantations, Indonesia faced deep shifts in the economic and political organization of society, from a military coup in 1965 and the subsequent centralization and authoritarian rule of President Suharto under the “New Order” regime (orde baru, 1966–1998) to the decentralization process during the reform period (reformasi) following the 1997/1998 Asian crisis and the fall of Suharto in 1998. For this article, the specific patterns of land control under both regimes were investigated and related to the biophysical expansion of oil palm plantations. Following political ecology research on the importance of land control for agricultural expansion and state power (Hall et al., 2011, Peluso and Lund, 2011, Vandergeest, 1996, Vandergeest and Peluso, 1995), the expansion of oil palm plantations in Indonesia is linked to processes of territorialization and reterritorialization. By examining the interlocked yet distinct processes of land control during two specific periods in time, (re)territorialization is identified as an important strategy in securing control over plantation land and in enabling the continuous expansion of oil palm plantations. The (re)territorialization processes since Indonesian independence in 1945 are linked to scalar reconfigurations of centralized to decentralized land control and to the establishment and continuation of an extractive regime (Gellert, 2010). The concepts of territorialization, and reterritorialization are presented in Section 2. The contribution of oil palm plantations to the extractive regime is analyzed on the basis of quantitative material flow and land use data and qualitative data from literature and interviews as described in Section 3. Results on territorialization and reterritorialization processes are presented in Section 4 and their contested nature is discussed based on four claims for alternative territorialization in Section 5.