Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs: Palm oil production results improved

"In 2015, the palm oil (CPO) plantation in Indonesia reached qq million hectares with total production of 32 million tons. Out of those numbers, 45 percent are owned by farmers, while the rest are owned by corporations and state-owned enterprises (SOEs)," Darmin said at the opening of an "International Conference on Palm Oil and the Environment" in Nusa Dua, Bali, on Wednesday.

He said that private plantations and SOEs had a vital role to play in assisting the small farmers. Large businesses had better access to markets and negotiating power on the international market.

"Therefore, private palm oil plantations and SOEs must not close their eyes to the small farmers," Darmin said.

According to him, stronger companies must be able to seek long-term solutions (solutions) to improve the sustainable practices of farmers and work with the government to promote good and sustainable plantation practices.

"Therefore, we want to prioritize the issue of disaster prevention this year. A lot of focus and aid are given to issues with mid- to long-term impacts. However, in the short term, we must prioritize preventing the recurrence of forest fires," he said.

Coordinating Minister of Economic Affairs Darwin expressed his appreciation for the three groups representing the main stakeholders in the palm oil sector, i.e., the private sector represented by PT SMART Tbk, researchers represented by CIRAD, and environmental NGOs represented by WWF.

Chairman of the "International Conference on Palm Oil and the Environment 2016" Steering Committee Daud Dharsono said that climate change is ongoing and is happening now.

He said that all stakeholders, scientists and practitioners, NGOs and government agencies, independent farmers, and the plantation industry, must work together to develop potential and practical options to take climate change mitigation and adaptation measures.

"With the collective knowledge and expertise of all stakeholders, we believe that we can obtain scientific solutions to cope with climate change to be applied across the palm oil industry," he said.