PALMOILMAGAZINE, JAKARTA – On Monday, July 31, 2023, Koperasi Produsen Perkebunan (Kopbun) Persada Engkersik Lestari, a cooperative comprised of independent smallholders from the Village of Engkersik, Sub-district of Sekadau, West Kalimantan Province, received the Indonesia Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO) certificate in Jakarta.
The certificate was ceremonially presented by Musdhalifah Machmud, the Deputy in Food and Agribusiness Coordinator at the Ministry of Economy, witnessed by Aron, the Regent of Sekadau, and Mansuetus Darto, the General Secretary of Serikat Petani Kelapa Sawit (SPKS).
Kopbun Persada Engkersik Lestari does not stand alone but is part of SPKS that helped the cooperation to realize no deforestation, peat, and exploitation (NDPE) commitment but protect the forest. The collaboration with SPKS showed its partisanship about sustainability principles in palm oil production which has become the main sector in Indonesia.
Also Read : Accelerating ISPO Certification in East Kalimantan Plantations 26 Percent Success
The cooperation and its members commit to implement sustainable palm oil plantation practices with the standard, principles, and criteria as regulated in Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) which is an organization that focuses on developing sustainable palm oil. RSPO certificate would become the important thing for Kopbun Persada Engkersik Lestari to get. Besides, the cooperation also obeys palm oil policies in national scale, and showed their seriousness to encourage sustainable practices in this country.
Having more than 300 members, Kopbun Persada Engkersik Lestari has gone in a very long journey to get positive images in palm oil industries. In 2022, 156 members fulfilled their targets to get RSPO certificates. This meant their seriousness to realize sustainable and environmental practices. But by getting ISPO certificate, the cooperation is officially acknowledged to run and implement sustainable and environmental production.
Kopbun Persada Engkersik Lestari and the collaboration with SPKS as the representative of independent smallholders, highly contribute to encourage more sustainable practices in social and environmental ways. These deliver good sample for other to do the same things.
NDPE commitment but protect the forests proved that palm oil plantations could grow and develop by noticing environmental conservation and people’s welfare around. (T2)
