[Anthropgrad] RMAP ARGUMENT - Dr Colin Barlow, Dr Anne Casson and Dr John McCarthy, moderated by Assoc Prof Lesley Potter - 4.30-6pm Thursday 4 September

[RMAP Seminars]

IS OIL PALM AN ENVIRONMENTAL TIME BOMB OR AN ECONOMIC SAVIOUR? 
<http://rspas.anu.edu.au/blogs/rmap/rmap-arguments/oil-palm/>

Moderator
Assoc Prof Lesley Potter, Visiting Fellow, Human Geography, RSPAS

Panel
Dr Colin Barlow, Visiting Fellow, Dept of Political and Social Change, 
RSPAS ANU, 
Dr Anne Casson, Resource Management in Asia-Pacific Associate, and
Dr John McCarthy, Senior Lecturer, Crawford School ANU.

Thursday 4 September 2008, 4.30-6pm followed by refreshments
Sparke Helmore Law Lecture Theatre 2, ANU

Abstract
Indonesia and Malaysia are currently experiencing an oil palm 'boom', 
with very high prices for crude palm oil and increased areas under 
cultivation, especially in Indonesia. But what does this mean in 
environmental and social terms?  What are the effects of this 
transformation on Indonesia's forests and peat swamps, on indigenous 
smallholders and plantation companies? How far do the economic benefits 
extend? What is the impact on local consumers?  What about biodiesel? 
Does oil palm expansion inevitably mean increased carbon emissions for 
Indonesia, or should the young plantations be considered 'forests' as 
they are in Malaysia? Is 'sustainable palm oil' merely greenwash?

Biographical information
John McCarthy is the author of The Fourth Circle: A Political Ecology of 
Sumatra's Rainforest Frontier (Stanford University Press, 2006). He 
lectures in the Australian National University's Crawford School and 
carries out research on agrarian change, land tenure, environmental 
governance and natural resource policy.  He has carried out various 
assignments with agencies in Australia and Indonesia including AusAID 
and the Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR).  He 
currently has a research grant under AusAID's Australia Indonesia 
Governance Research Partnership program to examine oil palm related 
policy in Indonesia and an Australian Research Council grant to research 
agrarian change in Malaysia and Indonesia.

Colin Barlow has spent most of his life working to improve the 
livelihoods of rural people, and especially small farmers. He was 
engaged for many years with the rubber sector in Malaysia and other 
parts of the world, later shifting his attention to oil palm. This was 
especially in Malaysia and Indonesia. Nowadays as President and CEO of 
the Nusatenggara Association, an Australian NGO, he is mainly involved 
with seaweed, cattle, other small animals, cocoa, cashew nut and wider 
social issues in eastern Indonesia.

Anne Casson has researched oil palm and its relationship with 
deforestation since 1998 when she began a PhD on the topic.  Her 
research at this time analysed oil palm and social conflict arising 
during the turbulent years of economic and political change. Since 
completing her PhD on this topic, she has lived and worked in Indonesia 
where she has not only undertaken research on oil palm, but also on 
illegal logging and forest governance for the World Bank and several 
other organisations.  Recently, Anne led a study on the relationship 
between oil palm, deforestation and carbon emissions for the Indonesian 
Forests and Climate Alliance and helped the Conservation Agency develop 
strategies for mitigating deforestation and reducing emissions from oil 
palm developments in the district of Berau, East Kalimantan. She has 
also examined the expansion of oil palm in Papua.  

-- 
Resource Management in Asia-Pacific Program
Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies
The Australian National University

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