PALMOILMAGAZINE, BOGOR – The Indonesian Government’s policy for the development of sustainable palm oil plantations or Indonesia Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO), has been carried out since 2013 through the Regulation of the Indonesian Minister of Agriculture (MOA) number 19 of 2011 concerning Guidelines for Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil Plantations. This regulation is part of the mandate of the 1945 Constitution to achieve sustainable national development, especially in the palm oil plantation sector.
ISPO regulations also continue to develop and are repeatedly revised, in 2015 it was revised through MOA Number 15 of 2015 concerning the Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil Certification System (ISPO). Then in 2020, the Government again revised and strengthened the ISPO regulation through Presidential Regulation Number 44 of 2020 concerning the Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil Plantation Certification System and MOA Number 38 of 2020 concerning the Organizer of the Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil Plantation Certification (ISPO).
The latest revision stipulates the mandatory implementation of ISPO certification for all business actors, including smallholder palm oil plantations, in 2025.
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Therefore, the Union of Palm Oil Smallholders (Serikat Petani Kelapa Sawit/SPKS) encourages ISPO certification to be carried out by palm oil smallholders in Indonesia. According to SPKS Chairman Sabarudin, the success of sustainable palm oil plantation development in Indonesia also depends on palm oil plantations owned by palm oil smallholders.
“Palm oil smallholders fully support the mandatory ISPO certification as part of the management of palm oil smallholders’ plantations,” Sabarudin explained.
The importance of successful management of smallholder palm oil plantations also comes from the application of sustainable principles and criteria that will increase the productivity of their crops. Therefore, SPKS expects active involvement from the Plantation Agency and the Regional Government to accelerate ISPO certification for palm oil smallholders.
This is because, since 2013, the implementation of ISPO certification has only reached 0.3% for smallholder plantations. This realization is still very low, while preconditioning efforts to ensure the readiness of business actors, especially palm oil smallholders in the implementation of the ISPO mandate, have only been carried out since 2019, through the National Action Plan for Sustainable Palm Oil (NAP SPO) policy until 2024. The NAP SPO provides a mandate for the Central Government and Regional Governments to carry out a series of efforts to improve governance with action plan program services and financed through APBN, APBD instruments, and multi-stakeholder cooperation support.
Funding for ISPO certification must also receive support from the Regional Government which comes from the Revenue Sharing Fund (DBH) for palm oil received annually. “Local governments must allocate palm oil DBH for funding ISPO certification of palm oil smallholders’ plantations,” Sabarudin said.
He explained that ISPO certification for palm oil smallholders’ plantations could help improve the welfare of palm oil smallholders in the future. In addition, multi-party cooperation, especially from the Palm Oil Plantation Fund Management Agency (BPDPKS), is also needed by smallholders in preparing land and infrastructure for their palm oil plantations.
“BPDPKS must also support funding for ISPO certification for palm oil smallholders, where the preparation of land and infrastructure for palm oil plantations still requires funding support from the Palm Oil Fund,” Sabarudin explained.
If the DBH Sawit and BPDPKS funding sources work together to accelerate ISPO certification for palm oil smallholders, then the achievement of ISPO certification will also be better in the future. Moreover, the commitment to ISPO certification has also been agreed in the RAN-KSB which is part of the commitment of the Government of Indonesia itself.
“BPDPKS funding for palm oil smallholders’ plantations is also a government commitment in supporting the existence of palm oil smallholders in Indonesia,” Sabarudin said. (P3)
