Center for International Forestry Research

Impacts of industrial tree plantations in Indonesia: Exploring local perceptions

Author(s): Romain Pirard
Center for International Forestry Research (2016)

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 CIFOR infobriefs provide concise,
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No. 152, September 2016 DOI: 10.17528/cifor/006233 cifor.org

Impacts of industrial tree plantations in Indonesia

Exploring local perceptions
Romain Pirard

Key messages
•• Based on a survey about perceptions of industrial tree plantations of 606 respondents living in the vicinity of such plantations
over three Indonesian islands, we find a clear divide, with evidence of more negative perceptions around acacia (pulp and paper)
plantations in Sumatra and Kalimantan compared with those around pine (resin and timber) and teak (timber) in Java.
•• Acacia pulpwood plantations develop in more remote areas, where they contribute to opening up jobs and infrastructure; these
facts are only partly acknowledged by local populations, as expectations have not been fully met. The plantations generate many
negative impacts such as deprivation of access to land for locals, environmental damage such as loss of biodiversity, and various
annoyances such as dust or noise.
•• Pine and teak plantations are usually found in more developed areas and have a much longer presence in the landscape, dating
from before Independence in many cases; they are therefore much less associated to negative changes, and their contributions
to local development through the provision of jobs or environmental services are acknowledged.
•• Intermediary institutions have already proved their effectiveness in the Javanese context with pine and teak plantations, and
could be mainstreamed with support from the government.
•• We find reasons to hope for better impacts if proper management decisions are made. For instance, companies can adapt
rotation periods and involve local people early in the planning process in order to satisfy the most important needs and requests,
mitigate risks of conflicts, and eventually improve local impacts.

Introduction
Planted forests are expected to expand dramatically worldwide,
as they are progressively taking over natural forests as the main
source of timber and other wood products. They cover about
280 million ha already, including 100 million ha of productive
plantations and 54 million ha of fast-growing monocultures1.
This expansion is surrounded by controversy, especially in tropical
countries. While some praise their capacity to produce efficiently,
alleviate damage to natural ecosystems, and contribute to
rural development with jobs and infrastructure, others point to
their negative social impacts, the associated conflicts and land
appropriation, as well as negative environmental impacts with
loss of biodiversity and unequal distribution of benefits2.

These controversies are particularly acute and relevant in a

country such as Indonesia where existing licenses for industrial
tree plantations on the public estate (HTI) cover more than
10 million ha, but where less than half of the land is planted;
most of this comprises private pulpwood estates established in
Sumatra and Kalimantan to supply the mills of the two main pulp
Legend
Pine Teak Acacia Acacia
1. Jabung (n=35) 3. Nglebur (n=92) 5. Suaran (n=76) 8. Pinang sebatang barat (n=55)
1 See Jürgensen et al. (2014) and FAO (2015) as sources of figures on the 2. Slahung (n=94) 4. Bangunrejo Lor (n=94) 6. Buyung buyung (n=77) 9. Rantau bertuah (n=55)
expansion of planted forests. Sources :
7. Lebuk jering (n=28)
1. Administrative data (2013), BIG Indonesia
2 See Gerber (2011) and Bauhus et al. (2010) for accounts of positive and 2. PODES (2011), BPS Indonesia State-owned company State-owned company Private companies
3. Administrative data, Diva-GIS
negative impacts of planted forests.

Map 1. Location of the nine sites for the study.

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regulation or even local climate regulation, availability of training

Box 1. Methods and others. Conversely, acacia estates are much more associated to
We conducted an extensive household survey in 2015 negative impacts, and are commonly seen as being responsible for a
in nine sites on three islands (Sumatra, Kalimantan and variety of both socioeconomic and environmental problems. Yet their
Java) having three different kinds of plantations (acacia contribution to local development is acknowledged to some extent,
for pulpwood, teak for sawn wood, and pine for resin and they indeed usually operate in remote areas where economic
tapping and timber) (see Map 1); 606 interviews were development is lower than the national average.
performed based on the same questionnaire. Plantations in
the sample were chosen based on the main geographical
areas of expansion in the country, with attention paid
Employment and access to
to representativeness. This is, to our knowledge, the first plantation land
comparative study of different types of plantations, with
the application of the same methodology replicated in a Access to land depends largely on the type of plantation. Acacia
systematic manner. plantations are intensively managed and fast-growing with short
rotations of 5–7 years, and offer few opportunities for villagers to
Plantation estates were identified in four contrasted use land that is under company management (26% of respondents).
contexts, and based on maps, we went into the field and In contrast, pine (64%) and even more so teak plantations (87%)
picked villages randomly among those meeting a number enable land-sharing practices, usually for inter-cropping and mostly
of eligibility criteria. Most importantly, we made sure to for vegetables. While these figures vary between villages for a
avoid villages with documented violent conflicts or model given plantation type, they seem to be related to the diversity
partnerships. This latter double condition was justified by of approaches to plantation management as regards intensity
the need to avoid extreme cases in order to ensure that and rotation length.
cases and findings were as neutral as possible for the sake of
generalization. Yet in a country where conflicts are extremely When it comes to employment, opportunities are roughly
common due to tenure uncertainty, rapid population growth equivalent for all types of plantations on average (even if significant
and migrations, we had to make sure that the sample differences must be noted between villages for idiosyncratic
would also reflect this kind of context. We could verify ex reasons), with 40%, 49% and 52% of respondents having worked
post that this condition was met, as about half of the acacia at least once in pine, acacia and teak estates, respectively. In other
plantation-related respondents have claimed land in the words, about half of the sampled villagers had the opportunity to
concession at some point in time, which is an indicator of earn cash incomes, mostly as manual workers on the plantations.
(low-intensity) conflict.
Exploration of contractual relationships is also necessary in order to
assess employment benefits, as they are an indicator of the nature of
employment and associated conditions. It appears that patterns differ
and paper groups. In addition, large-scale pine and teak estates are clearly between plantation types. Pine, teak and acacia exhibit three
managed by the state-owned company Perum Perhutani outside different employment patterns in this respect: pine plantations are
of the HTI system, and cover a substantial 2.4 million ha in Java. mainly based on payments per task for resin tapping, with use rights
Land tenure has always been disputed and many conflicts have allocated to households; teak plantations mainly hire seasonal workers
erupted. In addition, in recent years, fires have spread in plantation with daily wages; and with acacia we find a range of contracts from
concessions, resulting in large emissions of greenhouse gases, with permanent staff to daily workers to temporary contracts.
up to one-tenth of plantations going up in smoke.
Overall, significant numbers of people expressed their interest in
In this context, we aim to provide knowledge about the impacts either commencing work or working longer hours than was already
of these various industrial tree plantations through the exploration the case. Those not willing to commence work or to work more
of local perceptions. and collection of extensive primary data than they already do, admitted it was a personal choice, primarily
(See Box 1). because of a lack of time and because of other livelihood options.
Their secondary reasons were that the tasks would be too hard
physically, or incomes would be too low. This result is meaningful
Differences in perceptions ratings and seems to support the assumption that plantations could be
between plantation types seen as providers of complementary sources of income rather than
being the one and only source of revenue for villagers primarily
The perceptions of people living near tree plantations are involved in farming.
significantly more positive on almost all aspects for both pine (resin
and timber) and teak (timber) plantations when compared with
those of people living near acacia (pulpwood) plantations. This Services and benefits
suggests that generalizations about the impacts of industrial tree In the case of acacia, very few (if any) positive impacts were cited
plantations may be misleading. spontaneously. They are usually related to some kind of local
contribution to development through the provision of jobs and
Table 1 shows that people mention many more kinds of benefits infrastructure, which in the end support the local economy. Even
and services provided by pine and teak plantations than is the case so, respondents around acacia plantations expect more in the way
for acacia plantations. These benefits translate to not only a much of services and benefits, as private companies tend to be seen as
greater variety of tangible goods, but also to access to land especially agents of development and should take the burden of investments
for farming, positive environmental impacts with regard to water in roads, power generation and other basic means of development.

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Table 1. Perceptions of services and benefits provided by plantations (% of respondents replying spontaneously).

Services and benefits Pine Teak Acacia Entire

A B Total C D Total E F G H I Total sample
Local development 86 89 88 99 100 99 84 90 86 89 60 82 89
Employment 51 31 36 47 49 48 75 84 25 73 35 65 53
Livelihoods 43 74 66 53 59 56 46 27 21 38 7 30 45
Infrastructure 6 3 4 15 1 8 32 19 64 55 29 35 20
Provision of goods/land access 69 80 77 98 88 93 5 0 0 0 0 1 46
Ecosystem services 66 71 70 61 73 67 13 5 0 2 2 6 38
Water-related 46 59 55 59 67 63 11 3 0 0 0 3 33
Erosion-related 20 44 37 16 49 33 4 5 0 0 2 3 19
Support (training, loans, education…) 11 5 7 18 11 15 9 1 7 18 4 8 10
Others 3 1 2 5 0 3 8 5 14 4 18 9 5
None 0 1 1 0 0 0 13 8 11 9 31 14 7
Note: Categories in the table result from ex post coding, as questions were open so that qualitative information had to be subsequently processed to make
comparisons. A total of 17 categories were created. For instance, responses such as “water is cleaner” or “springs do not dry out any more” would be classified as
“Water-related ecosystem services.”
Source: Pirard et al. (2016)

Respondents mentioned more positive impacts around teak and pine Regarding teak and pine estates, more than half of the respondents
estates (more than two-thirds of them citing at least three positive cited no problems. Apart from the fact that these plantations
impacts), and the vast majority of them praised contributions to local have been around for a long time and people can hardly think of
development (see Table 1). Interestingly, a variety of environmental connecting a number of local issues to their development (e.g.
services were also cited, including improved water services and less possible impacts on water are not connected to the plantation
land erosion, or even good local weather. in the minds of respondents because they occurred at the time
of establishment even before they were born), it is also likely that
It is noteworthy that infrastructure was not cited around teak and intermediary institutions created by the companies have helped in
pine estates, which could be explained by the long presence of managing good relations with local communities.
these plantations in a relatively developed landscape so that they
can hardly be associated to the development of infrastructure. Most
respondents were born in Java, with plantations already established Trade-offs and room for improvement
in the landscape, and the link with roads, schools and other The issue of potential trade-offs is worth raising, as one may
infrastructure makes little sense to them. wonder whether or not the differences in the views of respondents
as regards pine/teak and acacia do in fact reflect very different
In contrast, provision of goods (e.g. fuelwood or medicinal plants) was perspectives. These are not necessarily black and white differences
massively cited around teak and pine estates, which is certainly due to in viewpoints, but might only illustrate choices that give priority to
the fact that these plantations have relatively long rotations and hence some aspects over others. The only pattern that could be identified
have the capacity to produce goods such as fuelwood that are at in terms of trade-offs is about pulpwood plantations opening up
the disposal of surrounding populations in most cases. Overall, these remote areas and being acknowledged locally for contributing to
rather positive views are combined with more expectations for teak infrastructure for local economic development, while scoring badly
and pine companies to provide cattle, loans and a variety of extension on almost all other aspects, especially environmental. Although
services and technical assistance. Note that respondents near teak sites an attractive finding, caution must prevail as some caveats apply.
exhibited fewer unsatisfied expectations than did those near pine sites. Acacia plantations have been developed only recently, so that
respondents can easily observe and report on the investors’ efforts
in building new infrastructure; on the contrary, teak and pine
Negative impacts plantations were established generations ago in a more developed
The low rate of responses on positive aspects in the case of acacia is and densely populated environment so that their potential
reflected in the high rate of responses on negative impacts (Table 2). contributions to road infrastructure and other benefits can hardly be
Almost half of the respondents cited spontaneously at least four noted by respondents.
negative impacts. The denied access to land is a primary source of
concern, followed by environmental disservices (including loss of Overall, based on our findings, we see reasons to hope that impacts
biodiversity or lack of beauty). Various other annoyances such as will be perceived in a better light for a number of reasons. For
pollution (including dust and noise from trucks) also emerged. instance, companies can adapt their management to local needs and
requests as reflected by pine and teak plantation companies taking
The vast majority of respondents pointed out the adverse effects ad hoc decisions to shorten or extend their rotation periods in order
on development, mostly due to restricted access to land (often to provide more opportunities to share land with farmers for inter-
translating into land claims), which is usually associated with cropping or to tap resin during the productive period. Contributions
limited sources of livelihoods. There is, therefore, competition over by local people to the forest management planning early in the
local natural resources, and a majority of people think that this is process would help a great deal and this could be framed and
detrimental to their economic fate. supported by the government for large-scale adoption.

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Table 2. Perceptions of negative impacts caused by plantations (% of respondents replying spontaneously).

Pine Teak Acacia Entire

Negative impacts
A B Total C D Total E F G H I Total sample
Local development 14 45 36 22 22 22 80 70 93 89 85 81 54
Access to land and natural resources 0 14 10 16 1 9 58 61 79 80 75 68 37
Livelihoods 0 10 7 0 0 0 30 18 75 49 25 34 18
Environmental impacts 11 15 14 2 1 2 59 38 61 64 31 49 27
Biodiversity/wildlife 0 4 3 0 0 0 50 35 46 56 25 42 21
Lack of infrastructure and services 6 31 24 14 23 19 20 44 7 5 24 23 22
Various annoyances 9 5 6 24 11 17 26 18 32 36 44 30 21
Plantation does not look good/is too big 0 2 2 4 0 2 24 12 29 27 18 21 11
Others 6 20 16 8 6 7 41 64 32 16 51 43 26
Communication with company 0 19 14 4 3 4 8 57 32 11 42 30 19
None 66 47 52 62 63 62 8 9 7 4 2 6 33
Note: Categories in the table result from ex post coding, as questions were open so that qualitative information had to be subsequently processed to make
comparisons. A total of 17 categories were created. For instance, responses such as “land is not available any more for rice cultivation” or “we cannot collect fuelwood
from the natural forest any more” would be classified as “Access to land and natural resources.”
Source: Pirard et al. (2016)

In particular, intermediary institutions can also work References

effectively by channeling claims and requests by local
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a variety of misunderstandings between both parties. Goods and Services from Plantation Forests. London: Earthscan.
The example of pine and teak plantations, where local [FAO] Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
perceptions have mainly improved over time is interesting, 2015. Global forest resources assessment 2015. Rome: FAO.
as the contributions of early local development programs Gerber J-F. 2011. Conflicts over industrial tree plantations in
may have played a key role over the last 15 years, the South: Who, how and why? Global Environmental Change
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Pirard R, Petit H, Baral H and Achdiawan R. 2016. Impacts of
Acknowledgments industrial timber plantations in Indonesia: An analysis of
This research was supported by funding from DfID with the perceptions by rural populations in Sumatra, Java and Borneo.
Know-For grant. It benefitted from valuable comments by CIFOR Occasional Paper 149, 31 pages, Bogor, Indonesia:
Pablo Pacheco. Center for International Forestry Research.

This research was carried out by CIFOR as part of the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and
Agroforestry (CRP-FTA). This collaborative program aims to enhance the management and use of
forests, agroforestry and tree genetic resources across the landscape from forests to farms. CIFOR
leads CRP-FTA in partnership with Bioversity International, CATIE, CIRAD, the International Center for
Tropical Agriculture and the World Agroforestry Centre.

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Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR)

CIFOR advances human well-being, environmental conservation and equity by conducting research to help shape
policies and practices that affect forests in developing countries. CIFOR is a member of the CGIAR Consortium. Our
headquarters are in Bogor, Indonesia, with offices in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
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