07
Apr 2009 - Jakarta, Indonesia: A major Indonesian
plantation company has become the country’s
first certified maker of sustainable palm
oil as WWF simultaneously collaborated with
the Indonesian Department of Agriculture
and others to hold a first-time regional
training workshop for small producers.
Musim Mas Group Plantations,
is the first company in Indonesia to demonstrate
that some of its plantations comply with
the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil
(RSPO) Principles and Criteria, a set of
standards that helps ensure that palm oil
is produced in a socially and environmentally
responsible way. Indonesia is the world’s
biggest producer of palm oil.
The RSPO brings together
oil palm growers, oil processors, food companies,
retailers, NGOs and investors to help ensure
that no rainforest areas are sacrificed
for new oil palm plantations, that all plantations
minimize their environmental impacts and
that basic rights of local peoples and plantation
workers are fully respected.
“Musim Mas hopes that
its certification will encourage more Indonesian
companies to follow suit,” said Liantong
Gan, head of Musim Mas’ sustainability department.
Musim Mas’ certification
underscores the progress that WWF, and others,
have made in efforts to increase the number
of palm oil producers that are operating
sustainably.
WWF works to ensure
that oil palm expansion does not come at
the expense of forests by promoting its
expansion onto degraded lands. It is also
helping to develop guidance for the small
holders representing 40 per cent of Indonesia’s
palm oil growers.
"WWF is pleased
to see progress in Indonesia, but there
is much work to be done before sustainable
palm oil can be a mainstream reality,"
said Ian Kosasih, Director of the Forest
Programme at WWF Indonesia.
"WWF Indonesia
will continue to cooperate with stakeholders
to build the capacity of farmers to implement
the RSPO guidelines, promote the use of
idle or degraded land for oil palm expansion,
and put pressure on those companies that
persist in converting natural forest for
oil palm expansion," Kosasih said.
WWF helped organize
the training for 21 training representatives
from small Indonesian palm oil plantations
from West Sumatra, Riau, South Sumatra,
Jambi, and West of Kalimantan.
WWF held the training
in collaboration with the Indonesian Smallholders
Working Group, the Department of Agriculture,
the RSPO Indonesia Liaison Office, Sawit
Watch, and various certification bodies.
The training stemmed from a memorandum of
understanding signed on Feb. 17 between
the RSPO and the Indonesian Department of
Agriculture.
The objective was to
educate trainers on the threats of oil palm
plantations to the region’s forests and
local species, to motivate smallholders
to comply with the RSPO P & C, and to
provide practical ways smallholders can
comply with these sustainability criteria,
including mitigating the wildlife human
conflict that often occurs happens in oil
palm plantations.
In addition, a syllabus
and training modules were developed so that
the representatives could take them back
to their operations for educational purposes.
The Indonesian Smallholders
Working Group is planning to hold further
trainings in the five provinces represented
at the March training, and follow them up
with audits.
As a founding member
of the RSPO, WWF has worked since 2002 with
a wide range of stakeholders to ensure that
the RSPO standards contain robust social
and environmental criteria, including a
prohibition on the conversion of high conservation
value (HCV) areas.
The workshop and Musim
Mas’ certification come only months after
the first shipment of RSPO certified sustainable
palm oil arrived in Europe from southeast
Asia.
Several European companies,
including Unilever, Sainsbury’s and Albert
Heijn, have already made strong public commitments
to buy certified sustainable palm oil.
The next RSPO Roundtable
meeting and the 6th General Assembly of
RSPO members will be held in November 2009
in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
+ More
Stalling climate talks
need financial stimulus
06 Apr 2009 - Bonn,
April 6 – After one week of slow UN climate
talks in Bonn, WWF is calling for a financial
stimulus to keep the negotiations on track
to achieving new global climate treaty due
in December.
According to the global
conservation organization, a recovery package
with funding for emission reduction efforts
and urgent adaptation measures in developing
countries could end the stalemate between
nations attending the talks.
“If the UN climate talks
were a bank in trouble, the billions would
probably be pouring in already”, says Kim
Carstensen, Leader of WWF’s Global Climate
Initiative. “But even though the negotiations
are getting close to bankruptcy, the money
needed to finance a new global deal is not
forthcoming. To ensure success in Copenhagen,
we need a climate recovery package now.”
In WWF’s view, the deadlock
in Bonn demands an immediate gesture by
the developed world: adaptation money for
immediate use, plus a commitment to serious
long-term funding at an adequate scale as
part of the new global deal. In the light
of the more than one trillion US Dollar
recovery pledges made by the G20 last week,
the amounts involved to deal with the much
more serious climate change problem are
clearly feasible
According to WWF calculations,
each industrialized country would have to
commit to a share of the total amount of
€145 billion ($US 196 billion) that is needed
annually by 2020 to fund adaptation and
mitigation in developing countries. This
amount consists of €100 billion ($US 135
billion) for mitigation – including measures
to reduce emissions from deforestation and
degradation –plus €40 billion ($US 54 billion)
and €5 billion for an insurance and risk
mechanism.
“Governments have their
hands deep in their pockets now, and that’s
an opportunity and principally good news”,
says Carstensen. “But, and here comes the
bad news, the same governments are not yet
investing this money in protecting jobs
as well as the climate and supporting the
UN talks at the same time. Serious money
for immediate adaptation action in most
vulnerable countries would be a good first
step.”
According to WWF immediate
Northern funding pledges for Southern climate
action would be a promising way to break
the deadlock on the core issue of emissions
reductions targets, particularly for industrialised
countries.
“The industrialized
countries have depressed Bonn with their
micro moves at micro level in the debate
about emission cuts, while developing countries
in the Micronesia region are seeking cuts
of more than 45% by 2020”, says Carstensen.
“The gap between what
rich countries find politically feasible
and what poor countries demand to ensure
their survival is widening. Putting cash
on the table to directly help vulnerable
countries could reverse the trend, restoring
trust among parties and bringing fresh dynamics
to the talks.”
