PALMOILMAGAZINE, JAKARTA – To support a sustainable palm oil industry aligned with the Indonesia Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO) certification system, the Directorate General of Plantations (Dirjenbun) at the Ministry of Agriculture, in collaboration with the Reclaim Sustainability! Palm Oil Program by Solidaridad and the Resource Center for Oil Palm Smallholders (ReCOPS), is accelerating the issuance of Oil Palm Cultivation Registration Certificates (STDB). This initiative particularly targets independent smallholders through the adoption of the Electronic STDB (E-STDB) system.
These efforts were discussed during a Focus Group Discussion (FGD) held last weekend in Jakarta, attended by representatives from key ministries (Agriculture, Finance through BPDPKS, and Home Affairs), the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs, West Kalimantan district governments, plantation business associations (GAPKI and GPPI), smallholder organizations (APKASINDO, SPKS, and FORTASBI), the European Forest Institute, and the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN).
This cross-institutional focus group discussion aims to assess the challenges, obstacles, and recommendations for the technical approach of the Regional Government in socializing STDB regulations to independent smallholders, farmer groups, cooperatives, especially oil palm commodities. Identify barriers and challenges faced in the technical implementation of STDB issuance and the transition to E-STDB at the regional level. Including formulating enabling or potential conditions in supporting the acceleration of STDB migration towards E-STDB at the regional level.
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Meanwhile, efforts to accelerate the technical registration and issuance of Cultivation Registration Certificate (STDB) which has been one of the crucial problems in achieving ISPO certification for oil palm farmers became the main focus of the focus group discussion.
According to the Director of Processing and Marketing of Plantation Products of the Ministry of Agriculture, Dr. Prayudi Syamsuri, S.P., M.Si, the Ministry specifically targets 10% or 250,000 oil palm farmers who must have STDB through the E-STDB mechanism from a total of 2.5 million oil palm farmers in Indonesia.
“Through the policy of implementing the E-STDB system issued by the Ministry of Agriculture, it is expected that 10,000 oil palm farmers can register to achieve the target that has been set per day in 2025,” Prayudi said in a statement received by Agicom.id.
Meanwhile, according to Dr. Ir. Hj Delima Hasri Azahari, M.S., Chairperson of the Solidaridad Network Indonesia Foundation and head of the ReCOPSm program, “Solidaridad fully supports the implementation of E-STDB in the field to achieve the targets set by the Ministry of Agriculture, including the People’s Palm Oil Replanting (PSR) program and food security that the government is currently promoting,” Delima said.
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One of the challenges in accelerating E-STDB in the field that must be resolved together is the different perceptions about the meaning or interpretation of STBD. In fact, STBD is not classified as a licensing document, but as a sign of legality of oil palm plantations owned by farmers issued by the Regent/Mayor or Regional Government officials who have been authorized.
For independent oil palm farmers, the STDB will help them obtain various oil palm plantation development facilities, starting from seedling distribution, replanting, marketing, and other programs from the government. This STDB is valid as long as the oil palm cultivation business is still being run by farmers and there is no change in land status.
Meanwhile, from around 3,792 independent smallholders assisted by Solidaridad in Lampung, West Kalimantan and East Kalimantan provinces, more than 2,000 STBDs have been issued until November 2024.
The input and results of this focus group discussion will be continued in a workshop in December 2024 to be submitted to the Government cq relevant Ministries in the form of a policy brief working paper on accelerating the implementation of E-STBD for oil palm independent smallholders. (P3)
