SMART ‘misreported’ some conclusions

The Jakarta Post | Sat, 08/21/2010 10:24 AM

Two international consultants hired by palm oil producer PT SMART to verify Greenpeace claims that the firm was responsible for deforestation said SMART misreported some elements in their study.

In their joint press release on Thursday, Control Union Certification and BSI Group (CUC-BSI), said due to the misreported elements, they “wish to restate the key findings of the report”.

On Aug. 10, SMART held a press conference where they announced that the Independent Verification Exercise (IVEX) Team Report had shown that “SMART operates responsibly and within the laws and regulations set out by the Indonesian government”.

SMART also called Greenpeace claims that they were responsible for deforestation and the destruction of orangutan habitats “exaggerated or wrong”.

In the release made available Thursday, however, CUC-BIS revealed several findings demonstrating that SMART was in breach of the law. The IVEX team, which comprised CUC-BIS members and experts from the Bogor Institute of Agriculture’s School of Forestry, found that there was planting on peatland more than 3 meters deep in two estates, a breach of a presidential decree on deep peatland. “This also contravened SMART’s own operating instructions,” it went on. The report said planting in deep peat was evident but not as extensively as claimed by Greenpeace.

On Aug. 10, SMART acknowledged the finding but said the planting was “unintentional”.

CUC-BIS said that of the 11 concession areas they examined, only three in West Kalimantan had obtained the necessary environmental impact assessments (Amdal) before the land clearance, while two in the province and all six in Central Kalimantan did not have the necessary Amdal when SMART cleared the land.

Another key IVEX finding said most of the concessions stood on already secondary forests, degraded and shrub lands before SMART cleared the land. However, the team found that 21 percent of the examined land, or 37,698 hectares of the company’s total 182,528 hectares was opened before an independent high conservation value assessment was conducted.

“This potentially contravenes Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil [RSPO] Principles and Criteria and SMART would need to propose a compensation or exclusion process when these plantations enter into the certification process,” the report said.

Greenpeace said SMART had “manipulated” the report by saying it operated responsibly and within the laws while knowing there were several legal violations. Greenpeace accused SMART, a publicly listed company, of misleading the public and its shareholders.

In response to Greenpeace’s fresh accusations, SMART said it did not have any intentions of misleading anyone as it had published the IVEX Team Report in a “transparent and open way”. “We have taken all the [necessary] steps according to the rules for companies listed on the stock exchange,” SMART president director Daud Dharsono said in a press release Thursday evening.

At a press conference earlier this month, SMART distributed the entire 84-page IVEX report to the press in addition to a press statement containing their own interpretations of the report’s findings on the top of the document in bold typeface. It also made a presentation on parts of the report along with SMART’s own conclusion on the report. — JP

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