RSPO Annual Communication of Progress 1. Profile Guidance: The following information, notably the operational structure, will help report users to adequately understand (and respond to) the context of your report. Give a brief description of operating companies and locations, subsidiaries, joint ventures, most important products and/or brands, estimated palm oil production or trade volume. This will only need to be supplied once, unless profile information has changed during the reporting period (e.g. through mergers or acquisitions). Name of the organisation: PanEco Foundation Membership type (tick one only): x Ordinary Affiliate Membership category (tick one only): Oil palm growers Operational structure of the organisation: Palm oil processors and traders Consumer goods manufacturers Retailers Banks and investors x Environmental/nature conservation organisations(ngos) Social/development organisations (NGOs) PanEco Foundation Local partner in Indonesia; Yayasan Ekosistem Lestari (YEL) - Department of conservation - Department of education & public awareness - Department of sustainable economic development Responsible Contact(s) Primary contact for questions, feedback: Name: Denis Ruysschaert Senior representative, authorising Address: PanEco Foundation for Sustainable Development and Intercultural Exchange Chileweg 5 CH - 8415 Berg am Irchel Telephone: 0041 (0)52 318 23 23 Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Email: Regina Frey, President mail@paneco.ch 1
commitments: Person submitting progress report: Financial contact for membership fee: Denis Ruysschaert Doris Ziani Guidance: The standard reporting period is 12 months or less. The date of submitting the report should not be longer than 3 months after the end of the reporting period. Reporting Period: November 2008 to September 2009 Date of Report: September 2009 2. Details of Progress A. Analysis and Strategy for Sustainable Palm Oil 1. High-level strategic view of the organisation's relation to sustainable palm oil and related longer term objective. Support development of RSPO in Aceh province, as governmental framework for oil palm development in the province. 2. Time bound plan with milestones/targets. Certification for the 100 Ha pilot study of oil palm with smallholders on fallow land expected to start in 2010 and to be completed by end of 2013 (when first production starts) As environmental NGO, PanEco is not a purchaser of palm oil. Activities to promote and support RSPO in Aceh started in May 2008 by arranging a Aceh Sustainable Palm Oil meeting and facilitating the establishment of the Sustainable Palm Oil Working Group for Aceh. As for the 100 Ha pilot study, it started on the field in May 2009 after extensive discussion with the local government and possible partners. The field project will last at least until April 2013 with the first yield. 3. Targets for the next reporting period. Development of 100Ha oil palm on fallow land, as an alternative to converting forests for new plantations. 4. Statement from the organisation's senior representative. PanEco remains committed to the success of RSPO, especially in regard to its potential role and influence on development of the palm oil industry in Aceh province over the coming years. PanEco is, however, deeply concerned regarding a lack of progress by the RSPO in some key areas (i.e. effective forest conservation, green-house-gases) and the lack of an ambitious and clear time-table for developing certified RSPO palm oil at large scale, encompassing all the oil palm products of each RSPO member. Significant progress in the near future in these areas will be critical in determining if PanEco can continue to actively support the RSPO as PanEco cannot support any initiative that simply 2
green washes bad practices. Guidance: Depending on the member organisation s profile or specific keywords provided by the organisation, it needs to consider and report how it will contribute to the RSPO mission. The objective translates into operational, time-bound deliverables on the longer term (3 to 5 years, with annual review) and the short term (one year, with annual updates). Justify any changes from last year. A sufficiently senior decision-maker confirms the commitments made. B. Progress made in producing, procuring and/or utilizing sustainable palm oil Guidance: Provide a report or update in relation to: the time-bound plan, applicable requirements ( citing relevant principles and criteria, Chain of Custody/Trade and Traceability rules, Communication and Claims rules, Code of Conduct where possible); and efforts in engaging key stakeholders (interest groups, business relations, etc). Information provided should be objective and verifiable, where possible quantified (volumes, hectarage, numbers of smallholders/labour/communities, etc). PanEco Foundation has started in May 2009, a 4-year programme to develop sustainable oil palm with 53 smallholders on 100Ha, as a pilot study of sustainable development of palm oil on fallow land in Aceh. PanEco has enlisted several partners (the Reaserch center ICRAF, the Unsyiah university at Banda Aceh, the NGO Cordaid, the NGO Leuser International Foundation, the District of Nagan Raya, the oil palm company P.T. Socfin, the certifying body LESOS and the Biodiversity commodities programme (BACP) of the International Finance Cooperation (IFC)) to implement the programme. 3
C. Challenges 1. Significant economic, social or environmental obstacles encountered in production, procurement and/or use of sustainable palm oil and efforts made to mitigate or resolve them. Obstacle1: Environmental impact assessment (EIAs) reports are not done correctly. Consultants are paid by the oil palm companies to produce favourable reports. There are obvious technical mistakes e.g., ignoring and omitting presence of endangered species, omitting obvious HCVF areas and staying very general in the findings. They are not done with a proper process (i.e. with multi-stakeholder dialogue, prior informed consent etc), but these EIAs are often still signed off on by the district heads, who frequently do not have capacity to fully understand the content (and omissions) in these reports, and their implications. To mitigate: Engage local governments (both provincial and district) to better understand the aims and strategy of the RSPO. Engage actors in understanding the value of forest ecosystems and the specific meaning of an EIA. Engage/lobby companies to undertake proper EIA and end the inadequate business-as-usual approach. Obstacle 2: Development of oil palm on mineral fallow land with small holders is confronted with a lack of clarity and certainty regarding land tenure issues and a lack of local capacity (to technically develop oil palm and to organize themselves). Additionally there seem to be a severe lack of interest in large palm-oil companies to enter fair partnerships with smallholders, as this might result in a reduced profit margin. To mitigate: Bring transparency (i.e. detailed accurate mapping of availability and suitability of fallow land), raise capacity of local smallholders, and develop fair partnerships with larger companies. Obstacle 3: Difficult to get out of the extremely destructive business-as-usual approach which typically involves clearing forests to establish large scale oil palm plantations, on both mineral soils and peat soils. To mitigate: Engage Aceh provincial government and other stakeholders to assist them in implementing Aceh Green vision for sustainable use of Aceh ecosystem. In practice, this means to develop a land use map for Aceh and its own Aceh specific regulations and guidelines for sustainable palm oil. Assess the economic value of the provinces peat swamp forests and disseminate the information widely. 2. Suggestions on how the RSPO can assist your organisation s sustainability performance. Internationally and nationally, in relevant fora, RSPO should express more clearly and pro-actively what it actually stands for and what it means on a practical level. RSPO should better promote RSPO certified sustainable palm oil to retailers, provided that this oil is really sustainable. RSPO should engage more pro-actively with Governments (including regional governments) to bring them on board and to encourage and help them to adopt RSPO P&C. RSPO should develop user-friendly material that clarifies the certification process and supply chain mechanisms for accountability (e.g. the book and claim and other mechanisms) so that practitioners and purchasers are better informed regarding the product and what RSPO certification means in practice. RSPO should initiate and help to put in place in co-operation with other stakeholders effective control instruments, such as satellite imagery, to monitor fire and other destructive activities in palm oil plantations around the globe in order to monitor own RSPO-members, as well as to expose nonmembers, acting against RSPO Principles and Criteria, especially when those members argue following RSPO Principle and Criteria. 3. Suggestions on how your organisation can assist RSPO s overall progress. Link RSPO general discussion to practical discussion with the Aceh stakeholders (by workshops and 4
inviting them to RSPO). Assist in the implementation of RSPO P&C in Aceh through 1) facilitation of framework/guidelines to develop palm oil production in Aceh and 2) practical on-the-ground programmes of implementation. Provide feed-back from practical on the ground experience, linking the overall RSPO objectives to the national and international arena (Switzerland, international meetings), raising awareness on this link, local international. Assist in improving traceability along the palm-oil supply chain within and from Aceh and ensuring that RSPO members strictly comply with RSPO P&C. Guidance: RSPO encourages openness about problems encountered as a way to provide a balanced and credible picture of performance and to invite solutions or views from other stakeholders. 5