Key messages
- Many independent oil palm smallholders threaten to become alienated from formal markets because they lack the technical capacity and/or resources to comply with public and private sustainability standards.
- Since resolving compliance barriers will require targeted interventions, it is becoming increasingly important to better understand the types of barriers faced by different types of smallholders.
- This brief presents preliminary findings of research on sustainability, legality and productivity challenges arising from independent smallholder oil palm expansion in Riau, Central Kalimantan and West Kalimantan.
- Research demonstrates how frontier expansion is often driven by larger out-of-province and absentee farmers that engage in oil palm for investment purposes rather than by smaller farmers (e.g. less than 3 ha) dependent primarily on household labor.
- Findings show how smallholder legality issues - faced especially by smallholders whose oil palm operations more closely resemble that of businesses - constitute the most significant compliance challenge.
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DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17528/cifor/006556Altmetric score:
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Publication year
2017
Authors
Schoneveld, G.C.; Jelsma, I.; Komarudin, H.; Andrianto, A.; Okarda, B.; Ekowati, D.
Language
English
Keywords
oil palms, public sector, private sector, small business, governance
Geographic
Indonesia
