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Toward constructive approach on palm oil

It would, undoubtedly, be naive to pretend that everything is perfect across the million hectares of land dedicated to palm oil plantation in Indonesia.

Jean-Charles Berthonnet (The Jakarta Post)
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Jakarta
Thu, April 13, 2017

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Toward constructive approach on palm oil The European Parliament recently passed a resolution on palm oil, which completely bans biodiesel made from palm oil by 2020. (JP/Dhoni Setiawan)

D

uring their meeting on March 29, visiting French President Francois Hollande and President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo expressed their wish to pursue common initiatives towards a green and sustainable growth model.

The two heads of state also encouraged bilateral cooperation in renewable energy, responsible agriculture, forest preservation and prevention of natural disasters.

On all these issues, France and Indonesia, which both have ratified the Paris Agreement on climate change, are committed to working together in order to find win-win solutions. And palm oil is no exception.

The European Parliament recently passed a resolution on palm oil, which completely bans biodiesel made from palm oil by 2020. I don’t subscribe to the overall tone of the text, which is unilaterally critical and moralizing.

That being said, the resolution contains a few interesting points, particularly regarding the need for an “inclusive” certification, along similar lines to the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) standard, which has proved its worth for tropical timber.

While the European Parliament’s resolution gives credit to recent initiatives taken by Indonesia on this matter, readers unfamiliar with this issue may get the impression that Indonesia and its major firms and smallholders in the palm oil industry somehow “have it all wrong” and are only aiming to accelerate deforestation and violate the most elementary social standards.

It would, undoubtedly, be naive to pretend that everything is perfect across the million hectares of land dedicated to palm oil plantation in Indonesia.

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