Panasonic donates 1,000 eco-friendly light bulbs to Indonesian village

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta, Thu, 04/26/2012

Japanese electronics firm Panasonic is calling on Indonesians to save energy and cut down on carbon dioxide emissions, through its "Eco Ideas" program of corporate social responsibility for villages.

"We are working together with an electronics retail company, Electronic City, to donate about 1,000 eco-friendly light bulbs to 651 household heads at Warung Kadu village in Purwakarta regency, West Java, where each family will receive three light bulbs," said Ronny Heribertus, Panasonic’s company spokesman, as quoted by kompas.com.

The 11-watt sustainable light bulbs can generate the kind of light similar to a 60-watt bulb. These so-called "eco spiral" bulbs can save 80 percent of electricity and last 10 thousand hours.

Panasonic's "Eco Ideas" program aimed to help Indonesian communities change their energy-consumption patterns so that they could save on energy, Ronny said on Tuesday.

Freeport donates Rp 58b to human rights foundation

Nethy Dharma Somba, The Jakarta Post, Jayapura, Fri, 03/02/2012

American mining giant PT Freeport Indonesia (PT FI) has donated Rp 58 billion (US$6.38 million) to the Timika-based Human Rights and Anti-Violence Foundation (Yahamak) to fund its programs.

Yosepha Alomang
(Kompas.com)

 “The donation will be disbursed in two stages: Rp 27 billion in 2012 and Rp 31 billion in 2013, as stipulated in the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU),” PT FI vice president for social affairs, Demianus Dimara, said after the MoU signing in Jayapura, Papua, on Friday.

Yahamak’s founder, Yosepha Alomang, said the funds would be allocated for education, health and economic programs, as well as to enhance the capacity of the foundation’s management.

 Yahamak was established in 1999 by Yosepha, a human rights defender who received the Yap Thian Hien award in the same year, and the Goldman Prize in 2001.

 Yosepha said that Yahamak was born out of the struggles of local women living in the company’s working area.

 Responding to the numerous shooting incidents, which have recently occurred in the province, Yahamak vice director Arnold Romsumbre demanded the President take the matter seriously and to speedily arrest the perpetrators.

 “When someone is stabbed and killed in an attack with an arrow in Timika, we can easily identify the perpetrator’s clan from the arrow’s characteristics. But we can hardly identify it from a bullet,” Arnold said. (swd)

Telkomsel allocates CSR funds for peoples’ empowerment

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta, Sun, 10/02/2011

Indonesian telecommunication giant Telkomsel has spent 65 percent, or Rp 18 billion, of its Rp 28 billion (US$ 3.16 million) Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) budget. The assistance has been committed to community empowerment programs, a company official said on Sunday.

“We have been using the funds to support student capacity building initiatives in schools throughout the country. We are likely to continue with these endeavors because we have received consistent positive feedback,” Telkomsel CSR general manager Tubagus Husniyullah said as quoted by tribunnews.com.

Tubagus said Telkomsel was particularly focused on regions recovering from disaster and assisting the organization of activities intended to support local residents during their recovery stages.

Freeport familiarizing Jayapura schoolers with environmental awareness

Antara News, Thu, September 8 2011

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Jayapura, Papua (ANTARA News) - PT Freeport Indonesia in cooperation with the Jayapura City administration is conducting a program to familiarize local primary and secondary school students with environment-related subjects under the theme "Towards Environmentally Aware Schools."

The head of the PT Freeport Indonesia representative office, Anthon Raharusun, said here Wednesday the program was a manifestation of the company`s constant attention to the environment and part of its efforts to work in partnership with local stakeholders.

"We have been doing a lot of cooperation with various parties as well as local administrations and private sectors, not only in Papua but also throughout Indonesia, especially in terms of environmental problems. Because PT Freeport Indonesia is concerned about the environment," he said.

He also hoped the cooperation with the Jayapura city administration can be done continuously in the future, not just familiarization for schools but also for regional task force units.

"All parties who wish to conserve the environment can cooperate with Freeport," he said.

The supervisor for environmental awareness and education of PT Freeport, Jimmy Rumainum, said the environmental awareness familiarization program for primary and junior high school students was also aimed at creating an environment-based school (locally named Adiwiyata).

"The activity itself in Jayapura city is still in its early stage but in Mimika district and several other areas in Papua it was in an advanced stage. In fact, in Mimika there is already an Adiwiyata school," he said.

Meanwhile, the vice mayor of Jayapura city, Nur Alam, on behalf of the city administration welcomed the concept of cooperation and initiatives offered by PT Freeport Indonesia.

Moreover, the administration has outlined the Five-Year Development Program (2011-2016) of Jayapura City, among others, the Clean and Beautiful City, and Lighting the City in the night.

"Many things can be supported by PT Freeport as a world class company. We hope the activities that give positive values ​​such as this can become a sustainable program," he said.

The Freeport program is highly synergistic with Jayapura city administration`s work program, so it can join hands to save the environment in Jayapura city area," he added.

Editor: Jafar M Sidik

INCO to build nickel factory in Bahodopi, C Sulawesi

Antara News, Fri, June 17 2011 

Palu, C.Sulawesi (ANTARA News) - PT Inco (Tbk) will realize its commitment to build a nickel processing plant in Bahodopi, Morowali district, Central Sulawesi province, before the end of June 2011, according to a clause in the work contract signed by the Indonesian government and PT Inco Canada in 1968.

"God willing, the groundbreaking ceremony to build the nickel refinery in Bahodopi will be held on June 22, 2011," a PT Inco official, Iskandar Siregar, said here Friday.

He refused to elaborate about the project but the Head of Bahodopi and Pomala`a Project, PT Inco, Kuyung Andrawina said the project`s cost was estimated at US$500 million.

According to Iskandar, the groundbreaking ceremony will be conducted by the Governor of Central Sulawesi Longki Djanggola, Morowali District Chief Anwar Hafid and the President Commissioner of Valeinco, the Brazilian company that controls the shares of PT. Inco, Peter Poppinga, as well as the CEO of PT Inco Tony Wenas.

On the occasion, PT Inco will also sign a memorandum of understanding with Bao Steel and PCI - two companies from China that will become partners to Inco in building the nickel factory.

The construction of the nickel plant in Bahodopi is also an investment strategy of the company to achieve an annual production of 90,000 metric tons compared with an average of 73,000 metric tons achieved in the last five years from the refinery in Sorowako, South Sulawesi province.

In connection with the visit of the Chairman of Valeinco Peter Poppinga to Morowali, Inco will also symbolically hand over the products development and the social activities which were funded with Inco`s social responsibility program that most of them are already enjoyed by the people of Central Sulawesi.

Those products include diesel engine power plant with a capacity of 1 mega watt, a unit of mini-hydro power plat, a health center building and its equipment, ten motorcycles for the health center as well as food packages to the local people living in the vicinity of the project site.

Editor: Jafar M Sidik

Major firms launch initiative to fight malnutrition in kids

Rangga D. Fadillah, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Tue, 06/14/2011

The Indonesian government welcomed on Monday a public private partnership (PPP) initiative to fight malnutrition in Indonesian children called Project Laser Beam (PLB), which is supported by the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) and several globally renowned enterprises.

The secretary of the Office of the Coordinating People’s Welfare Minister, Indroyono Soesilo, said the initiative was critical to help the country end child hunger and poverty, particularly in East Nusa Tenggara and Papua, two of the poorest provinces.

“The government of Indonesia is committed to lifting people out of poverty and giving every Indonesian child a healthy start in life. PLB will kick off very soon under the coordination of my office,” he said at a press conference on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum on East Asia in Jakarta.

He expressed his gratitude to Unilever, Kraft Foods, DSM and Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) as well as to three local companies — PT Tiga Pilar Sejahtera, GarudaFood and Indofood – for their participation in PLB.

“PLB is a creative new pillar in the fight to end child malnutrition, which we believe will be a major contributor to attain the Millennium Development Goals [MDGs],” said Indroyono who is also a candidate for the Food and Agriculture Organization’s director general for the 2012-2015 period.

PLB is a five-year, US$50 million project that aims to eradicate child malnutrition. The initial focuses of the initiative will be Indonesia and Bangladesh where child malnutrition rates are unacceptably high.

In Indonesia, more than 37 percent of under fives go to bed hungry, while in Bangladesh, the rate reaches 48 percent.

Pradeep Pant, Asia Pacific president director of Kraft Foods, said his company contributed around $10 million to the initiative. He elaborated that PLB would cover programs, such as teaching locals about sustainable farming, assisting them to create micro enterprises and providing nutrition education to mothers and children.

“In my opinion, this initiative is likely to succeed because it has three required pillars, which are sustainability, big scale and conducted repeatedly,” he said.

Unilever chief executive officer Paul Polman argued that participating in the initiative was very important for his company’s business. Ending child malnutrition and preparing children to be healthier and more prosperous in the future would be a way for the company to expand its market.

“Our business won’t work if the market doesn’t work,” he said.

The continued commitment of Unilever, Kraft Foods and several new local and international partners demonstrated confidence that the world was on the right track in fighting hunger in a new and innovative way, said the director for public policy, communications and private partnerships of WFP, Nancy Roman.

“When the government and businesses work together, we can do more than what we can do individually,” she said.

Garuda cares about forest reservation

Antara News, by Otniel Tamindael, Tue, June 7 2011

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akarta (ANTARA News) - To make a valuable contribution to the fight against global climate change, state-owned airline company PT Garuda Indonesia cares deeply about forest preservation.

The company has carried out tree planting activities to help sustain forests in in a number of areas across the country to provide wider environmental and socio-economic benefits.

In the Gunung Padang forest area in West Sumatra, national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia Airlines planted thousands of trees recently.

"Thousands of the trees Garuda has planted at Gunung Padang forest area are made up of various kinds including Mahogany and Meranti," Garuda Padang branch general manager Dedi Irawan said in Padang on Sunday.

In the natural rain forest, Mahogany is a very large canopy tree, sometimes reaching over 150 feet in height with trunks sometimes more than 6 feet in diameter above a large basal buttress.

Mahogany is a generally open-crowned tree with gray to brownish-red fissured bark, and is regarded by many as the world`s premier wood for fine cabinetry, high-class furniture, pianos and other musical instruments, figured and decorative veneer, interior trim, and carving.

Besides Mahogany, Meranti is also an important emergent tree of the tropical forests in Asia. Its wood is light to medium weight and widely used for light construction and more importantly for veneers.

Many other forest products are derived from Meranti, which is classified in the division Magnoliophyta, class Magnoliopsida, order Theales, family Dipterocarpaceae.

Dedi Irawan said the Mahogany and Meranti tree planting activity by Garuda Indonesia was conducted at Gunung Padang in West Sumara because he area has been deforested.

"If reforestation is not done immediately at Gunung Padang forest area, it will would have a bad impact on the people living nearby," Dedi Irawan said.

According to him, sustainable reforestation at critical land through the government projects and public participation was one way to prevent any future natural disasters such as floods.

"The tree planting activity to help prevent erosion and restore critical land because of illegal logging is part of Garuda Indonesia`s concern for environmental damage," Dedi Irawan said.

"Forest is a buffer for the life of surrounding communities, and therefore Garuda Indonesia is very concerned about the destruction of forests due to illegal logging," he added.

Dedi said the tree planting activity at Gunung Padang forest area by Garuda was in cooperation with Padang city administration

to restore forest sustainability.

He added that Garuda started environmental care program of "One Passenger One Tree in 2007 as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR Garuda Indonesia).

Garuda Indonesia also carried out tree planting activity in Aceh province in January last year in cooperation with the International Leuser Foundation (YLI) and the provincial government of Aceh to help sustain the forests in the province.

At the time Garuda President Director Emirsyah Satar said the planting of 24,000 trees in Aceh reflected the state-owned airline company`s care about forest preservation and community economic improvement.

According to garudamagazine.com, Garuda Indonesia has realized an environmental protection program to help mitigate global climate change by rehabilitating the forest through tree replanting at Sebangau National Park in Central Kalimantan following the signing of memorandum of understanding (MoU) in November 2007.

The reforestation in the Sebangau National Park covers an area of 250 hectares and involves 100,000 trees, which were planted by setting aside part of the proceeds from ticket sales to passengers flying on Garuda Indonesia routes from Australia and Japan.

In his remarks, Emirsyah Satar said at the time that the tree planting activity was in line with Garuda Indonesia`s program of concern for natural conservation and also with the efforts of the global aviation industry to achieve "clear sky" operation by 2050.

Emirsyah Satar also noted that the activity was expected to create opportunities for economic improvement for the local community through development of ecotourism in Sebangau National park, much as Garuda Indonesia has already done in Yogyakarta through the "One Passenger One Tree" program.

An agro-ecotourism zone has been developed in Karang Tengah, Yogyakarta, through planting of 50,000 Mahogany and Cashew trees, from which golden silk would be produced that is unique in the world.

Garuda Indonesia has done this for several interrelated reasons: to spur more tourists to visit Yogyakarta, especially those who are interested in agro-ecotourism; to empower and foster local silkworm farmers; and to conserve the environment by planting trees with productive economic value.

Carbon Positive believes that tree planting can and will make a valuable contribution to the fight against global climate change.

It believes that carbon markets in their various forms are key to providing an effective means of financing tree-planting activities on the scale needed to make a difference globally.

Planting trees is hugely beneficial to the world in the face of accelerating climate change for there is a strong international scientific consensus that human activity is causing global warming.

At a local level, tree planting on deforested lands will create further environmental benefits because forests play a vital role in regulating water supplies, helping to reduce both water shortages in times drought and damaging floods in heavy rains.

Forests also provide habitats for a wide array of plants and animal species, a number of which are threatened with extinction by deforestation.

Therefore Garuda Indonesia`s care about forest preservation is expected to help support the local community`s livelihood, and through its tree planting activity, Garuda is a pioneer in conservation among state-owned enterprises.

Editor: Priyambodo RH

Radios for Refugees

Tempo Interactive, Thursday, 18 November, 2010

TEMPO Interactive, Yogyakarta:An agribusiness company, Wilmar Foundation, has donated 2.000 radios and batteries to refugees of the recent Mount Merapi eruption.

The radios were handed by Wilmar Group’s Commissioner, M.P. Tumanggor, to Yogyakarta governor, represented by Murprih Antoro Nugroho, the National Welfare and Community Protection Chief, yesterday.

“We hope the refugees will get the right information from the radio,” said Murprih. He said the National Disaster Management Agency and the Radio Republic Indonesia (RRI) had launched the Merapi Radio station last Sunday.

PITO AGUSTIN RUDIANA

China Harbour donates Rp 500m to disaster survivors

Nani Afrida, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Fri, 11/19/2010

China Harbour Engineering Co. Ltd, a China-based Infrastructure construction company, donated Friday Rp 500 million (US$56,000) in funds to disaster survivors.

"This donation will assist survivors of disasters in Indonesia," Liu Guo Fang, the deputy general manager of China Harbour Engineering, said on Thursday in Jakarta.

The company is donating Rp 500 million in total. Rp 100 million will be disbursed to tsunami survivors in Nias, while Merapi and Wasior flood survivors will receive Rp 200 million respectively.

Zhang Qiyue, the People's Republic of China to Indonesia ambassador, said previously that China had contributed US$1.5 million to disaster survivors in two phases.

Rain forests still cleared for palm oil

RNW, by Fediya Andina and Ralph Rozema, 10 Nov. 2010 | By RNW News Desk

(photo: Wikimedia Commons/Hayden)

Tropical rain forests in South Asia are still making way for monotonous palm oil plantations. Certification for palm oil should have stopped this happening. It was introduced in 2008, but the results are patchy and the deforestation continues.

Palm oil producers and buyers are being joined by environmental organisations in Indonesia’s capital Jakarta for the annual meeting of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) on 11 November. A seal of approval logo for labelling products from 2011 onwards will be on display there for the first time.

Switch

RSPO's logo for product packaging

RSPO chairman Jan Kees Vis hopes the logo will let consumers know that the items they are buying are the result of sustainable palm oil production. Mr Vis, who works for Unilever, says sustainable palm oil is growing fast: “Many companies have said that they’ll make the switch in the next five years.”

However, opinions about the value of a RSPO certificate differ. “Many firms keep clearing forests, even though they’ve got a certificate,” says Suzanne Kröger of Greenpeace.

Production chain

Ms Kröger acknowledges that the introduction of certification in 2008 was an important step. Companies such as Unilever and Nestlé have really changed the way they operate. “Nestlé has gone through its whole production chain to check that there’s no deforestation. This makes the company a welcome exception to the rule,” she says. “But a lot of Indonesian and Malaysian producers are resisting. They are the biggest problem. A certificate without hard guarantees is no real solution.”

Congo and Liberia

Indonesia and Malaysia account for 90 percent of the international trade in palm oil. “You’re now seeing Malaysian companies clearing forests in Indonesia and even moving their operations to Congo, Liberia and other African countries. We expect the problem will spread to other countries.”

Indonesia’s palm oil plantations have led to disputes with local farmers. Norman Jiwan from the Sawit Watch group says farmers are being “driven from their smallholdings by bulldozers”, after the land has been sold to palm oil producers.

Small farmers

Certification costs companies several thousand euros per year and the expense can prove a difficulty for small farmers. Mr Vis points that funds have been made available to deal with this problem. “Membership costs 2,000, but small-time producers can join a cooperative or ask for the membership fee to be waived. There are even funds to meet the cost of certification.”

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Volcano a no-smoking area

smh.com.au, Will Carless, November 5, 2010 - 5:29AM

Nobody is allowed to smoke in the Sampoerna Rescue camp.

The cluster of leaky, ash-covered canvas tents that has been set up in a muddy field here, on the slopes of erupting Mount Merapi in Central Java, has been designated a smoke-free zone by volunteers and employees of Sampoerna, one of Indonesia's largest tobacco companies.

The camp is one of the only places here in Java, where almost two-thirds of adult males are addicted to cigarettes, and where smoking is tolerated everywhere from airport lounges to children's play parks, that you can't smoke.

The company, which has been owned by Philip Morris since 2005, paid for the camp, the flashy four-wheel drive vehicles parked in front of it, and the cluster of eager staffers wearing natty red and black uniforms covered with company logos.

The team is one of several emergency response efforts organised by large Indonesian corporations in response to the devastating series of eruptions that have so far killed 44 people and displaced more than 77,000 rural residents in the last week.

On Thursday, as the volcano unleashed its biggest explosion yet, killing five more people, the mountainside crawled with expensive ambulances, water purification trucks and four-wheel-drive vehicles, all provided by the companies.

Businesses as diverse as Jakarta-based conglomerate Artha Graha, telecommunications giant Telkomsel and state oil company Pertamina provided the vehicles, which, like the uniforms of the squads of employees who operate them, are typically emblazoned with corporate logos.

Known here as "corporate social responsibility" efforts, the disaster relief teams aim to augment efforts by a stretched Indonesian government to house, clothe and feed evacuees from the volcano.

Representatives of the companies working on the mountain said their efforts are entirely altruistic, and baulked at any suggestion that the aid teams double as a marketing campaign for the companies.

But local residents and evacuees were not so sure.

"Why can't they just do the good stuff, but without the advertising?" asked 18-year-old Anin, who like many Indonesians only uses one name and who was volunteering at an evacuation camp opposite the Sampoerna camp in her home village of Harjobinangung.

"Why can't they just use plain white vehicles or something?"

Earlier this week, police and military officers tore down hundreds of banners and advertisements for political parties that had quickly sprung up on main streets in the evacuation zone.

The removal of the advertisements, which had rankled local residents and evacuees, came after a local official said they had been erected without permits.

Aprilianto, a 31-year-old evacuee from the slopes north of Harjobinagung, said the government should apply the same rules to private companies that have erected banners and tents displaying their corporate logos.

"The companies are taking advantage of the situation, so why should they be treated differently?" Aprilianto said.

Inside one of the Sampoerna tents, Herman Sudjarwo, a general practitioner who usually works in a private hospital in the city of Surabaya in East Java, attended to evacuees in a makeshift clinic.

He said most of the 90 to 100 patients he sees a day are suffering from breathing difficulties attributable to the high levels of volcanic ash and dust that have rained down from the volcano's crater.

Asked whether he sees any irony in a cigarette company providing free medical checkups, Sudjarwo giggled.

"This is to balance it out," he said.

Arief Triastika, a national coordinator for Sampoerna's community development efforts, who has been managing the camp on Merapi, said his company is only interested in providing assistance to people affected by the volcano and is not using the disaster as a promotional opportunity.

Sampoerna maintains three disaster management teams on the island of Java and has dispatched crews of volunteers to disasters all over Indonesia since 2002, Triastika said.

The company has helped provide food, medical equipment and logistical aid to victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, the 2006 tsunami in West Java, earthquakes in Padang and Yogyakarta and floods across Java in 2010, he said.

Asked if skeptical evacuees have criticised his efforts, Triastika shook his head vigorously.

"At the moment we don't have that criticism. And we keep giving the best we can do for the community," he said.

When employees and volunteers want to smoke at the Sampoerna Rescue camp, they have to leave the tents, even if it is pouring with rain, Triastika said.

The camp is a de facto medical clinic, he said, and therefore must be kept sterile.

Locals eyeing the tents and the Sampoerna banners from an evacuation camp across the street had other ideas about the Sampoerna effort, however.

Asked if he had ever thought to approach the camp volunteers for free cigarettes (the company does not hand out cigarettes), Aprilianto's eyes lit up.

"No," he said as he stubbed out a rival brand's clove cigarette. "Do they do that?"

Banyan Tree Bintan hotel released sea turtle hatchlings to sea

Antara News, Tuesday, October 5, 2010 01:54 WIB

Tanjungpinang, Riau Islands (ANTARA News) - A number of sea turtle hatchlings found their way to the open sea as released by the Banyan Tree Bintan Resort and Hotel of Riau Islands at Lagoi Beach, Bintan witnessed by hundreds of foreign tourists on Sunday evening.

"This campaign was conducted to preserve the ecosystem balance and to save the hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata) from extinction," the Corporate Social Responsibility Manager of Banyan Tree Bintan Resort and Hotel, Henry Ali Singer said here Monday.

"There were still 220 sea turtle eggs estimated to hatch in the mid-October 2010 in the hatchery," he said.

The last four months, banyan Tree Bintan had released 364 sea turtle hatchlings originated from eggs collected from Panjang Beach, Lagoi tourism spot in the nesting time in March-September, he said.

The Manager of Banyan Tree Bintan, Herman Puspa released the first hatchling to the sea witnessed by hundreds of enthusiastic foreign tourists, especially children.

The tourists documented the struggle of the hatchlings to reach the open sea from the shoreline.

The crowd was getting louder to encourage the hatchlings to reach the sea creating a blithe atmosphere in the campaign.

"The tourists were pleased to witness this rare moment. It was the first experience for most of the tourists, especially kids, and they will show their documentations of the rare occasion to their relatives and friends back in their countries," Henry said.

Each of the hatchling weigh around 15 gram at the day it born, much lighter than the egg itself that weigh 25 gram, he said, adding that the turtle eggs were buried 50 cm deep in sand until they hatch 50-60 days afterward.

A sea turtle could lay 150 eggs at a time in the nesting time, but it takes around 30 years and even decades for sea turtle to reach sexual maturity, he said.

According to the research, only one percent of the hatchlings could survive in the ocean, he said.

However, the management relocated the sea turtle eggs from the natural nesting ground to secure them from human threat as some people consume the eggs and sell them in the market.

"Some animals such as wild hogs and monitor lizards like to eat sea turtles," he said.

Indonesia's Sinar Mas Censured by Palm Oil Watchdog

Jakarta Globe, September 23, 2010

Sinar Mas has come under attack by Greenpeace who are campaigning against further expansion of forest industry and palm oil plantations in prime forest and peatlands that stores massive amount of carbon deposits. Palm oil industry watchdog, The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, said on its Web site its grievance panel had written to SMART and Golden Agri censuring the firms for the breaches uncovered by an audit. (AFP Photo/Romeo Gacad)

Jakarta. An industry body for sustainable palm oil has made its first public censure of a member, saying Indonesia’s Sinar Mas Agro Resources & Technology breached its principles and may face sanctions.

Sinar Mas Agro Resources & Technology, also known as SMART, last month released an independent audit after Greenpeace alleged SMART bulldozed high conservation value forests and damaged carbon-rich peatlands.

The audit gave SMART a mixed score card, highlighting some instances in which Indonesia’s environmental laws were breached.

The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, also known as RSPO, — an industry body of planters, green groups and consumers — said on its Web site its grievance panel had written to SMART and Golden Agri censuring the firms for the breaches uncovered by the audit.

SMART is a member of the RSPO but Golden Agri-Resources is not.

“In its letter to SMART and GAR, the panel finds there has been serious non-compliance with the RSPO code of conduct, specifically a failure by SMART to work towards implementation and certification of the RSPO principles and criteria,” it said.

In particular, RSPO principles on social and environmental impact assessments and peatland management have been infringed, it said.

“Members who have been found to not be in compliance and who continue to be in non-compliance with the RSPO regulations could ultimately face sanctions, including the suspension and, eventually, the termination, of their membership of the RSPO.”

The comments may be a blow to SMART’s aims to win back big palm oil buyers including Burger King, Nestle and Unilever, who have said they will stop buying from SMART because of environmental concerns.

The RSPO also urged GAR to stop publicly suggesting it was in the process of obtaining RSPO certification.

“GAR is not a member of the RSPO, nor has the RSPO yet received a membership application from the company. The Panel encourages GAR to submit a full and complete application for membership,” the statement said.

SMART said in a statement it would work toward the requirements set by the RSPO, including environmental impact assessments and conservation of deep peatlands.

Enormous amounts of climate-warming gases are released when deep peatlands are disturbed, and the deforestation of Indonesia’s extensive tropical forests led the World Bank to name it the world’s number three emitter in a 2007 report.

“We take the feedback of our stakeholders very seriously and this applies to the concerns of the RSPO, whom we are in touch with,” said Daud Dharsono, President Director of SMART.

Golden Agri referred queries to the SMART statement. SMART and Singapore-listed Golden Agri are controlled by the Widjaja family that founded Sinar Mas, a group with interests from plantations to property and finance.

Greenpeace welcomed the RSPO’s statement, saying RSPO should follow up on its reprimand by expelling SMART within four weeks if the company does not take action.

“Greenpeace is calling on other companies, like Cargill, to follow Unilever, Nestle and Kraft’s lead and cancel its palm oil contracts with Sinar Mas until it stops destroying rainforest and carbon rich peatlands,” said Greenpeace activist Bustar Maitar.

Reuters

End of deal: A Burger King franchise is seen on Sept. 2, 2010, in Los Angeles. The US hamburger chain has said it will stop buying palm oil from an Indonesian company accused of destroying rainforests. – AP/Damian Dovarganes

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Papua village places food hopes in sago

Markus Makur, The Jakarta Post, Timika | Thu, 09/16/2010 10:04 AM

A sago planting program will ensure that the Kamaro people of Nayaro village, Mimika, Papua, can eat for the next ten years, a local leader says.

PT Freeport Indonesia, the Catholic Diocese of Timika and Manokwari’s Papua State University (Unipa) launched the program in 1998 to guarantee the community’s food security.

The program involved the cultivation of 8,520 prime sago tree seedlings between 2008 and 2009.

“Thanks to the program, we are confident that the people of Nayaro will not suffer from food shortages in the future,” Timika diocese chief Monsignor John Philip Saklil Pr. said recently.

Saklil said superior sago seedlings had been imported from Sentani, Jayapura, and planted on a 85 hectares of a 124-hectare farm that was collectively owned by 141 Nayaro village families. Each family received a plot of 60 sago trees.

Planting was completed in May 2009 and residents have since tended to the trees, which could be harvested after eight to 10 years.

“I hope PT Freeport’s Social and Local Outreach Development department will help the people in Nayaro to care for the sago trees so they can be harvested,” Saklil said.

Some of the trees now top 4 meters. Mature sago trees can yield up to 1.5 tons of flour.

“If a single tree could yield up to 1.5 tons of flour, then it could provide food to many people,” Saklil said.

“The food crisis could be overcome in the future,” he added.

Nayaro village’s sago trees are a pilot project for other villages along the southern coast of Mimika, he said, adding that residents were taught how to make sago flour into cakes, noodles and meatballs.

Unipa rector Yan Pieter Karafir said the province has 1.2 million hectares of sago plantations, 90 percent of the national total.

Fast-Food Giant Cuts Ties With Sinar Mas

Jakarta Globe, September 02, 2010

In this file photo Greenpeace activists display a large banner with a message "APP stop destroying tiger forest" at the PT. Tebo Multi Agro concession. APP, Indonesia's largest pulp and paper producer is a division of Sinar Mas. Burger King, the international fast food company, has cut ties with Sinar Mas after Greenpeace’s successful campaign against the Indonesian group’s land-clearing practices. (AFP Photo/Romeo Gacad)

US fast food giant Burger King said on Thursday that it would no longer buy palm oil from Sinar Mas or its subsidiaries, after Greenpeace’s successful campaign against the Indonesian group’s land-clearing practices.

Burger King joins the likes of Unilever, Nestle and Kraft in shunning Sinar Mas in a move that will increase pressure on other corporate buyers of its palm oil products, such as Pizza Hut, KFC and Dunkin’ Donuts.

The news comes on the same day that Burger King, the second-largest US fast-food chain, announced that it had agreed to be bought by investment firm 3G Capital for $24 per share, or about $3.26 billion.

Indonesia is the biggest producer of palm oil, which is used in everything from biscuits to cosmetics, but environmentalists say plantations are behind deforestation blamed for habitat loss and greenhouse gas emissions.

Burger King said a recent independent audit of Sinar Mas palm oil unit Smart’s land-clearing practices — commissioned by Sinar Mas in response to the Greenpeace allegations — revealed activities “inconsistent with our corporate responsibility commitments.

“We believe the report has raised valid concerns about the sustainability practices of Sinar Mas’s palm oil production and its impact on the rainforest,” Burger King said on its Facebook page.

“As part of our … corporate responsibility program, Burger King Corp. is committed to sourcing our products from sustainable suppliers.”

It said it was looking for a new palm oil supplier for its 176 restaurants supplied by Sinar Mas.

“In addition, we are notifying our suppliers of our intent to discontinue the use of palm oil supplied by Sinar Mas in the manufacturing of our products.”

Sinar Mas Agro Resources and Technology has been struggling to repair its image after a Greenpeace campaign led several foreign buyers to cancel major contracts.

Greenpeace says the company is clearing high-value peat forest against Indonesian law and failing to wait for environmental studies before starting operations in sensitive areas of Borneo.

The company has acknowledged mistakes have been made in small areas, but denies it is a “forest destroyer.”

Rampant deforestation, much of it illegal, is a major reason Indonesia is the world’s third-biggest emitter of greenhouse gases and is driving species like Sumatran tigers to extinction.

Smart’s credibility took a blow last month when auditors Control Union Certification and BSI Group, authors of the independent verification report, complained that it had misrepresented elements of their findings.

The company had trumpeted their report as evidence that Greenpeace’s allegations were false, but the auditors said the probe’s “key findings” included that it had violated Indonesian law on forest management.

It also found that Smart had initiated operations on almost 38,000 hectares of land on Borneo before mandatory environmental studies had been completed.

Greenpeace welcomed Burger King’s announcement.

Greenpeace forest campaigner Rolf Skar wrote in a blog: “This is another blow for Sinar Mas, which had hoped its self-commissioned audit would convince corporate customers and the media that it was a sustainable company."

Smart president director Daud Dharsono has rejected any suggestion the company was trying to dodge the findings of its own audit or mislead shareholders.

Agence France-Presse

End of deal: A Burger King franchise is seen on Sept. 2, 2010, in Los Angeles. The US hamburger chain has said it will stop buying palm oil from an Indonesian company accused of destroying rainforests. – AP/Damian Dovarganes

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Cargill Supports Unilever's Drive to Use Sustainable Palm Oil

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Source: Cargill, Inc., 29/07/2010

29 July 2010 — Cargill has entered into a supply agreement to provide Unilever's European operations with 10,000 metric tonnes of segregated refined palm oil, certified by the Round Table for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).

This means that the oil will have been certified as sustainable, having been segregated at every step in the supply chain. Cargill’s new offering will strengthen its ability to provide sustainable palm oil products to meet customers’ requirements and will complement its existing certified RSPO Mass Balance palm oil offering.

“Our agreement with Unilever is the result of both companies’ strong commitment to supporting responsible supply chains”, said Paul Naar, head of Cargill’s food businesses in Europe. “As the demand for certified sustainable palm oil continues to grow, we are combining our supply chain expertise and industry knowledge to provide customers with choices to meet their particular requirements. We are very pleased to partner with Unilever and see this as a big step forward in the drive towards palm oil sustainability.”

"Unilever is ahead of plan to achieving 100 percent sustainable palm oil by 2015 with over 35 percent already being RSPO certified this year", said Marc Engel, Chief Procurement Officer at Unilever. "Today's announcement marks another important milestone in our journey to 100 percent sustainable palm oil, as Cargill's physically segregated certified oil will be delivered in our factories and used in our products. We are very pleased that Cargill, as one of our strategic partners, is sharing our vision on sustainable palm oil and enabling this for us."

Cargill’s offering of fully segregated refined palm oil follows the RSPO certification of the company’s European and Malaysian oil refineries. PT. Hindoli in Sumatra, Indonesia received its RSPO certification in February 2009 and Cargill is currently working to certify its other palm plantation in Indonesia, Harapan Sawit Lestari. Cargill fully supports the RSPO process to promote the growth and use of sustainable palm oil throughout the supply chain. The company has set a goal of buying 60 percent of its total crude palm oil from RSPO members by the end of 2010. It is encouraging its third-party suppliers to join RSPO and attain certification and its eventual goal is to have a 100 percent RSPO certified supply chain.

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