Human security, which was first used in its current sense by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in 1994, can be understood as the protection and preservation of fundamental human freedoms, including freedom from want (poverty and unemployment), fear (violence and conflict), and indignity (displacement and human rights abuses). This study aims to compare the impacts of coal mining and palm oil industry on the human security of local communities. For this purpose, this paper applies a comparative case study method in Kalimantan Timur and Kalimantan Tengah as the centre of coal mining and palm oil plantation, respectively. Building on Karl Polanyi’s perspective on ‘commodification’ and ‘embeddedness’, this study found that palm oil plantation has better impacts on the human security of local communities than coal mining industries. The commodification of land by the mining industry in East Kalimantan has co-opted the livelihood of local communities, most of whom originally worked in agriculture. Transferring job opportunities from agriculture to mining does not fit with the agency of local labourers, therefore local labourers find it is difficult to get jobs and to participate in the mining industry. In contrast, Kalimantan Tengah has developed its agricultural industry, including palm oil plantations, operated through establishing cooperation with local labourers and local farmers in the Nucleus Estate Smallholder scheme (NES). In the long term, despite Kalimantan Timur’s income being higher than Kalimantan Tengah, this has not been translated into reduced poverty and unemployment in the Province.

Keywords: Palm Oil, Coal Mining, Human Security of Local Communities