The Rimba Raya Biodiversity Reserve REDD Project

In 2004, five oil palm estates were formally proposed to theBupati and the Governor that partially occupy the ex-­‐timberconcessions adjacent to the Park (Figure 20). All five of theseproposed estates have received the initial stage of oil palmpermits from the Seruyan Bupati with the northernmost estatealso being granted the estate license (HGU – Indonesianacronym).Following HGU designation, the northernmost estate was rapidlyconverted to oil palm plantation. This concession, managed by PTKharisma Unngul Centratama) became operational in 2007.InfiniteEARTH has obtained copies of official government lettersrequesting the conversion or Rimba Raya to five individualestates. The original copies and translations of these letters areincluded in Annex 11.This series of events strongly suggests that conversion of theremaining four palm oil concessions, is the most likely baseline or“business as usual scenario” for the Project. And the Rimba RayaProject Area is based on the boundaries of the four planned butas yet undeveloped oil palm concessions (Figure 21). The CarbonAccounting Area boundary, which covers an area of 47,006 ha, iscoincident with proposed concession boundaries except in thenorth where it has been reduced to exclude an area of potentialhydrological impact within 3 km of the developed KUCCplantation.Field surveys, government records research and spatial analysiswere conducted to further investigate and document thisscenario and also used to test alternative scenarios, both ofwhich are discussed in the following sections.Figure 20. Outline of five original proposed oil palm concessionsin the Project Area, the 1996 TPNP border (shown in black) andthe new park border (shown in red) revised as a result of illegalinfringement by the palm oil estate to the north of the park.80