Comparing Coal Mining Industries and Palm Oil Plantations Impacts on The Human Security of Local Communities

Abstract

Coal mining and palm oil plantations are important sectors for supporting development in Indonesia. However, these sectors are criticized as the cause of horizontal conflicts, deforestation, and natural disasters that threaten the human security of local communities. Therefore, this research aims to compare the extent to which coal mining industries and palm oil plantations have impacted the human security of local communities by applying comparative process tracing as in the case of Kalimantan Timur and Kalimantan Tengah. This result showed that palm oil plantations have lower negative impacts on the human security of local communities than coal mining industries. Mining has co-opted the livelihood of local communities as those who initially worked as farmers lose job opportunities due to the transfer of agriculture to mining. In contrast, palm oil plantations cooperate with local laborers and farmers in the Nucleus Estate Smallholder scheme (NES), which prevents unemployment. Therefore, in the context of local communities' human security, government should develop palm oil plantations than coal mining.