PALMOILMAGAZINE, JAKARTA – In a recent development, the Complaint Panel of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) issued a firm decision against PT Bakrie Sumatera Plantations Tbk, the parent company of PT Grahadura Leidong Prima, following a complaint from community representatives.
The complaint, filed on 23 November 2023, accused PT Grahadura Leidong Prima of failing to meet its commitment to facilitate and develop plasma plantations for local communities. The company was alleged to have neglected an agreement and failed to provide necessary information regarding the progress of plasma plantation and conservation partnerships.
According to information Palmoilmagazine.com received on Monday (2/9/2024), the RSPO Complaints Panel launched an independent investigation to verify the claims. However, during the investigation process, PT Bakrie Sumatera Plantations Tbk formally withdrew from RSPO membership, a decision that was submitted to the RSPO Secretariat on August 12, 2024.
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Even though the company resigned, Complaint Panel of RSPO continued the investigation, consideration, and noted that there was significant postponement from the reported one during the process. “This is categorized as the postponement to formally deliver its response and failure to effectively participate in complaint solution mechanism that RSPO Secretariat proposed,” RSPO Complaint Panel noted on 26 August 2024.
In the sentences, Complaint Panel concluded that what PT Bakrie Sumatera Plantations Tbk., had conducted during the complaint process, was not satisfied and broke the ethic code of the 2022 RSPO membership, particularly about transparency and conflict solution.
As the result, by having its authority based on RSPO regulation, the Complaint Panel of RSPO stopped the membership of PT Bakrie Sumatera Plantations Tbk from RSPO. The sentence emphasized the commitment of RSPO to deliver justice about sustainable practices in palm oil industries, and confirmed the accountability for its members.
In the future, Complaint Panel of RSPO would recommend RSPO Boards of Governor about the implication and action that would be happening from the case. This progress significantly means the important thing to deliver ethics standards in palm oil sectors, reinforce the roles of RSPO to promote sustainable practices and transparency for the whole members.
Bakrie Sumatera Plantations Response
In the reply documents that PT Bakrie Sumatera Plantations Tbk., (BSP) wrote on 4 September 2024, the company officially resigned from Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) membership by the documents on 5 August 2024. The resignation happened before RSPO officially published complaint document about the complaint to BSP subsidiary, PT Grahadura Leidongprima (GLP), on 26 August 2024.
Director of PT BSP, Bayu Irianto mentioned that the company resigned from RSPO membership voluntarily. BSP claimed, there was not significant advantages for being RSPO member anymore.
One main issue to be the main focus in the company was the claim from civil organizations (groups) about its obligation to develop plasma plantation (fasilitasi pembangunan kebun masyarakat sekitar (FPKM) by GLP. Bayu thought the claim had no strong legal because GLP got plantation business permit on 8 December 2004, and the obligation to realize FPKM was not available. It has been available since on 28 February 2007 and not available before the period.
“So far, the obligation is not available for GLP. But since 2022, GLP has conducted productive partnership with the local through the cooperation and groups to support smallholders replanting program (SIDR),” Bayu wrote on his documents to Palmoilmagazine.com, Friday (6/9/2024).
About the people’s complaint to RSPO about GLP, BSP thought, the complaint procedures by RSPO would not be correct. He thought, there were lacks of validation and verification to the legal subject of complainant and the complaint substance. “We asked to get clarifications about legal subject of complainant to RSPO but it was not well responded. The complaint process ran without delivering protection for RSPO member,” he said.
BSP also sent clarification documents to RSPO about the decision of complaint panel on 26 August 2024, to revise and re-publish the decision in RSPO official website. It was about to confirm transparency and accuracy in complaint management process.
Bayu also said the decision of BSP to resign from RSPO members would be the strategy by the consideration that the membership would not significantly deliver advantages for the company. (P2)
