September 2019 is exactly one year after the issuance of Presidential Instruction (Inpres) No. 8 of 2018 concerning Postponement and Evaluation of Oil Palm Plantation Licensing and Increasing Productivity of Oil Palm Plantations. Through this policy, the government is trying to improve the management of sustainable oil palm plantations, provide legal certainty, maintain and protect environmental sustainability including reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, as well as to increase the development of oil palm smallholders and increase the productivity of oil palm plantations.

The moratorium and evaluation of oil palm plantations is a good momentum to improve the governance of oil palm plantations in Indonesia. The model used in this palm oil moratorium is that data and information will flow from districts/cities to the national palm oil moratorium work team via the provinces, where the government has issued several priority areas namely North Sumatra, Jambi, Riau, South Sumatra, West Kalimantan, Kalimantan Central, and East Kalimantan. This is based on the assumption that these areas are the areas with the largest oil palm plantations, meaning that through these 7 priority areas more than half of the oil palm plantations have been reached….see attached document