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Stronger rule to back ISPO delayed

The government has delayed the issuance of a presidential regulation on sustainable oil palm planting, which is expected to put an end to negative campaigns and disruptions to one of Indonesia’s biggest export commodities

Rachmadea Aisyah (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Mon, December 3, 2018

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Stronger rule to back ISPO delayed

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span>The government has delayed the issuance of a presidential regulation on sustainable oil palm planting, which is expected to put an end to negative campaigns and disruptions to one of Indonesia’s biggest export commodities.

The proposed regulation has been the subject of talks since 2015, as the government plans to commence a national action plan on sustainable palm oil development.

However, the Office of the Coordinating Economic Minister said the regulation would require further examination and thus would likely be issued in the first half of 2019, a year later than the initial target.

“Our minister [Darmin Nasution] is highly committed to the formation of this policy because it will be referred to nationally and it will be used against the [negative campaigns among] international [palm oil stakeholders],” said Wilistra Danny, the ministry’s deputy assistant for plantations and horticulture, at a recent seminar in Jakarta.

He said the implementation of the presidential regulation would center on Indonesia Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO) certification for both smallholders and companies.

The ISPO certification program started under a 2011 decree from the Agriculture Ministry and was renewed through Agriculture Ministerial Regulation No. 11/2015, which required all producers to apply for the program by September 2015 and receive their respective certificates by March 2017.

With the proposed presidential regulation, the National Development Planning Board (Bappenas) set a target to ensure that 70 percent of palm oil plantations receive ISPO certification by 2020.

However, the target may not be realized in time as Bappenas said that only 19.5 percent of oil palm plantations had been certified nationwide.

“For now, the government will keep on promoting the ISPO so that it will be recognized globally as an Indonesian standard for palm oil sustainability,” said Wilistra.

He added that government representatives had scheduled meetings with foreign palm oil buyers to promote the ISPO and the presidential regulation to-be, including with European members of the Amsterdam Declaration who have committed to putting an end to the purchasing of non-sustainable palm oil and its derivative products by 2020.

Rusman Heriawan, head of the supervisory committee for the Finance Ministry’s Indonesian Oil Palm Estate Fund (BPDP-KS), acknowledged that one of the main challenges was funding issues, which prevented smallholders from applying for ISPO certification. Therefore, it would provide funds smallholders with the necessary funds for the certification process, he said.

“Aside from providing Rp 25 million [US$1,747] per hectare for replanting [purposes], it is possible for us to provide additional funds to help [smallholders] finish the certification process,” said Rusman on the same occasion. “Therefore, we will be helping them to indirectly obtain the ISPO [...] by helping them financially.”

Aditya Bayunanda, World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Indonesia director for policy and advocacy, criticized the lack of traceability in sustainable palm oil based on a recent draft of the regulation. Traceability was critical for Indonesia as the world’s largest palm oil producer and third-largest market, he said.

“There is no obligation [for stakeholders] to ensure that [palm oil] products generated from ISPO-certified plantations can be traced [...],” Aditya told The Jakarta Post in a text message on Sunday. “Without it, the market would not be able to identify products that used sustainable practices.”

He suggested that the government provide incentives for palm oil producers to be ISPO-certified by prioritizing domestic market access for palm oil products that came from certified plantations.

“All attempts to improve the market mechanism for [palm oil] will be futile if domestic markets are not mandated to absorb the products from those ISPO-certified [plantations],” Aditya added.

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