Historical Assessment of Forestland Conversion to Oil Palm Plantations in Riau and West Kalimantan, Indonesia

Forest’s conversion associated with the expansion of industrial scale oil palm plantations in the two provinces of Indonesia (Riau and West Kalimantan) was documented using Landsat images that were visually interpreted to create a province-wide map of 11 different land cover types spanning three temporal periods (1990 to 2000, 2000 to 2010 and 2010 to 2013). After analyzing all regions and temporal periods in both provinces only 1.66% (30,452 ha) of oil palm plantations originated on land derived directly from undisturbed forests (0.01% Primary Dryland Forest, 0.00% Primary Mangrove Forest and 1.65% Primary Swamp Forest), while 64.78% (1.18 Mha) were established on land previously covered with disturbed forest (12.14% Secondary Dryland Forest, 0.67% Secondary Mangrove forest and 51.97% Secondary Swamp Forest). Conversion of Dry and Wet Scrublands was documented as 23.82% (0.43 Mha) with 7.43% from Dry Scrubland and 16.39% from Wet Scrubland. Forest conversion to establish oil palm, including both undisturbed and disturbed forest of all types of habitats summed over all temporal periods was proportionally greater in Riau (70.03%: 0.84 Mha), compare to West Kalimantan (59.52%: 0.37 Mha). In both provinces, the largest sources of land for new plantations were Secondary Swamp Forest (43.43%: 0.27 Mha) in West Kalimantan, while (56.40%; 0.68 Mha) in Riau.