Judul: Conservation-based oil palm cultivation
Abstrak: The development of oil palm plantations has given a number of consequences on the great demand in land; however, in practice, there are a lot of accusations that land utilized comes from the conversion of forest areas, and this is suspected to be the cause of the loss of biodiversity of tropical rain forest ecosystems, cause of disruption of wildlife (flora and fauna), habitat fragmentation, and extinction of a large number of species, especially endangered species. The research was conducted in three (3) units of oil palm plantations located in Central Kalimantan Province in order to (1) determine the use and land cover change, (2) assume the plant species of wildlife suspected to be lost (biodiversity loss) and thought to be increased (biodiversity gain) as consequences of changes in land cover due to oil palm plantations (3) demonstrate the calculation of the financial analysis of oil palm cultivation carried out on various types of land cover and different peat depths, and perform analysis by taking biodiversity loss and gain biodiversity into account, and (4) formulate alternative models and describe the profile of conservation-based oil palm cultivation. Conservation-based oil palm cultivation in this research was defined as an activity with no biodiversity loss; in other words, the hypothesis indicated that biodiversity loss (bio-loss) was equal to zero. Based on the Provincial Spatial Plan of Central Kalimantan Province Year 2003 (Local Law Number 8 Year 2003), it is stated that the status of the land before it is opened for oil palm plantation is not a forest, but is located in the cultivation area/or in an area for other uses (APL). The result of analysis of land use prior to the opening of oil palm plantation showed that land for palm oil development was not entirely derived from wooded land cover (tuplah), but also from the areas of shrubs, mixed farming land/communal farms, and open land. Oil palm land developed came from the former concession, former estates of other companies, including land owned by the community through the process of compensation. Land cover based on the interpretation of land satellite images before land opening for oil palm plantations showed no identification of primary forests but only secondary forests, shrubs, mixed farming land and vacant land. The forested area that is still present in the plantation has retained its initial conditions and is designated as a conservation area in the forms of a riparian area and peaty forest area. Identification and analysis of the diversity potential of plants and wildlife in the forested areas (primary and secondary forests) and in shrubs were performed to determine the suspected missing species (biodiversity loss). The result showed that the density of vegetation in the conservation area inside the plantations was less than that in the primary and secondary forests, and the stand volume in the conservation area in the plantations had less potential than that in the primary and secondary forests. The abundance of Shannon species (Shannon H' Index) showed the species in the primary forest were still more abundant than those in the forested areas in the
Keyword: Oil palm plantations, changes in land cover, biodiversity loss and financial feasibility analysis.