PALMOILMAGAZINE, JAKARTA – Over the past 13 years, the implementation of ISPO has seen only a meager 0.3% compliance among smallholders. However, with the government’s mandate for ISPO certification to be mandatory by 2025, targeting nearly 100% coverage, a significant overhaul is imperative.
To achieve this ambitious goal, a comprehensive and innovative approach is needed, particularly through the adoption of a jurisdictional framework to facilitate large-scale certification.
SPKS advocates for this jurisdictional approach, believing it can expedite ISPO certification, especially for smallholders who face formidable challenges. These challenges are particularly acute for the approximately 70% of smallholders who operate independently across 6.9 million hectares of land. SPKS emphasizes the importance of regional institutions, such as regional governments, which possess the necessary infrastructure and political leverage to effectively manage palm oil profits and funds.
Also Read: A Jurisdictional Approach to Address ISPO Certification Funding for Palm Oil Smallholders
Leveraging their access to both central government resources and local networks, regional governments are ideally positioned to streamline ISPO certification processes at the grassroots level.
The complexity of ISPO certification poses a significant barrier for smallholders, especially those residing in Indonesia’s 16,500 villages. From establishing village-level groups to navigating regulatory frameworks and institutional requirements, the process is arduous and time-consuming. Simplification of regulations and the adoption of a jurisdictional approach are essential to facilitate large-scale certification initiatives, ensuring that smallholders can obtain ISPO certification with greater ease and efficiency.
As smallholders’ organization, SPKS keeps doing its best to organize independent smallholders and do training about the best and sustainable practices. Then SPKS would encourage to get multiparty – collaboration, including with the government, non-government organizations, plantation companies, smallholders and the people would cooperate to implement ISPO principles and criteria by having jurisdiction approach.
Bernadinus Steni Sugiarto of Kaleka mentioned that the financial issue in certification process may have solution if the smallholders that are joining the process are in massive numbers. From the previous experiences, if 500 smallholders joined the process, it would spend US$ 170 per hectare. But if 2.000 smallholders joined the process, it would spend only less than US$ 50 per hectare.
Steni thought, it is crucial to escalate capacity, map, establish organization, and legality to maintain the sustainability in palm oil industries. These aspects should be supported by the government and coordinated by the local authority.
In big scale ISPO certification process, it needs to be efficient maximally. That is why jurisdiction approach would be the key to implement the audit. The regional government plays important roles to lead/manage the process by involving other stakeholders, such as, the officials, NGO, industries, and smallholders. The collaboration would support one to another among the stakeholders and confirm that the implementation would be sustainable and holistic.
Then, he continued that the incentive would be important part to encourage the active participation and involvement from these parties. One party that would significantly get the advantage is the smallholders.
“By having jurisdiction approach, the companies in the region would collaborate and support one to another. The regional government is in charge to facilitate the cooperation by delivering facilitated needed,” he said in public discussion and press conference that SPKS conducted, Wednesday (3/4/2024) in Jakarta. (T2)
