Forest or oil palm plantation? Interpretation of local responses to the oil palm promises in Kalimantan, Indonesia

•Cash crop plantation expansion, triggered by international trade, is one of major causes of global land use/cover change including deforestation•Oil palm plantation expansion is one of the most rapid.•In Indonesia, expansion of plantation to customary land requires local people's approval.•Oil palm companies seek local people's approval by way of economic promises.•We found no straightforward correlation between people's economic conditions and belief of these promises.•People with high embeddedness and interest in the future however disbelieved the promises and rejected the conversion to oil palm.