JAKARTA – Asosiasi Petani Kelapa Sawit Indonesia (Apkasindo) secara resmi telah mengirimkan surat kepada Bill Gates berkaitan tuduhan negatif kepada kelapa sawit. Surat bernomor 208/DPP-APKS/V/2024 ini menyatakan kekecewaan 16 juta petani kelapa sawit di Indonesia kepada Bill Gates yang selama ini dikenal sebagai filantropis dan peduli terhadap masyarakat kecil.
“Petani sawit Indonesia sungguh kecewa dengan informasi yang diberikan Bill Gates sebagai tokoh yang dikenal memperjuangkan kesetaraan dan peningkatan taraf hidup manusia, termasuk petani kecil,” kata Ketua Umum Apkasind Gulat Manurung dalam keterangannya, Kamis (16/5/2024).
Gulat menegaskan bahwa gagasan Bill Gates yang ingin
menghilangkan pohon kelapa sawit, ini sama saja dengan membunuh ratusan juta orang di negara-negara produsen, terutama para petani kecil, yang menanam pohon tersebut dengan keringat dan air mata.
“Ambisi Bill Gates yang membuat C16 Bioscience akan mengakibatkan banyak orang yang berisiko menjadi pengangguran, kemiskinan dan kehilangan akses terhadap layanan kesehatan dan pendidikan dasar, jika pohon kelapa sawit tidak ada lagi,” ujar Gulat.
Berikut ini petikan surat Apkasindo yang dikirimkan ke email GatesFoundation pada 13 Mei 2024.
Dear Mr. Gates
On behalf of the Indonesian Palm Oil Smallholders Association, I would like to express my strong disappointment toward your view on palm oil, particularly in regard of ‘how we get it’ as stated in your blog www.gatesnotes.com on February 13, 2024.
You have brutally accused palm oil as the cause of deforestation of rainforest and wetlands which leads to emission and the release of greenhouse gasses and thus concluded that it is best to have no palm oil tree at all.
Please let us remind you that eliminating palm oil trees is the same action as killing hundred millions of people in the producing countries, especially the smallholders, the one who plant the tree with sweat and tears.
Is preserving the nature in which human worth the cost of killing smallholders live by killing their source of income? It is well known and many studies shown that palm oil provides vital income for poor communities considering more than 40% of the crops derive from smallholders. We, smallholders, do not expect to have equal wealth as you are, yet selling palm oil fresh fruit bunch has fed many families for generations.
In fact, palm oil industry in Indonesia is proven to contribute to the development in the rural communities. It provides jobfor over 2.3 million smallholders and 4.6 million of its workers. If we look closer, it becomes the source of livelihood for over 20 million people, if we count all the workers and their families that depend on the industry.
These are the numbers of people who would be at risk to fall into unemployment, poverty and losing access to basic healthcare and education, should palm oil tree no longer exist due to your ambition in replacing it with the product of C16 Bioscience.
Any action against or to banish this commodity, particularly the one that is based on a scientifically flawed criteria is counter-productive, not only to broader socio-economic dimension of sustainable development, but also on the environmental conservation.
Based on the study by European Commission in 2013, palm oil only contributes 2% in global deforestation throughout 1990 – 2008, whereas soybean contributes 6% or three times higher.
Another data from USDA in 2021 shown that palm oil owns the lowest deforestation index in comparison to other crops of vegetable oils which are sunflower, rapeseed and soybean.
The abovementioned research indicate that palm oil is, in fact, the solution crop to reserve the nature and increase livelihood of many people. This knowledge leads me to conclusion that your action to banish palm oil crop is an act of diminishing global competition in the name of nature preservation.
Mr. Gates, I urge you to please consider wisely the consequences of your perspective and act towards palm oil would cost millions of smallholders lives in at least 7 producing countries. Shall you truly concern about the nature, we are more than delighted to discuss further possible movement to minimize any impact.
Honorable Mr. Gates, who is a prominent public figure that is admired by the world. We earnestly ask you to allow us, palm oil smallholders to live equal welfare with your part of the world, because palm oil. Please allow our children to have equal chance of better future, because of palm oil. (ANG)
