InfoSAWIT, JAKARTA – Prior Ad Hoc Joint Task Force (JTF) on European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) was established to solve some issues and identify the best solution about EUDR implementation that Indonesia and Malaysia would face.

Kick-off meeting Ad Hoc JTF on EUDR was in Jakarta on Friday (4/08). It was led by Deputy in Food and Agribusiness Coordination Coordinator Ministry in Economy, Musdhalifah Machmud; General Secretary of Ministry of Plantation and Commodity Malaysia, YBhg. Dato' Mad Zaidi bin Mohd Karli; and Director of Green Diplomacy and Multilateralism European Commission (EC), Astrid Schomaker.

As in the official statement to InfoSAWIT, Musdhalifah said that the meeting was about to get the same understanding between producer and consumer countries.

But researcher of ECOSOC Institute, Sri Palupi said that JTF EUDR did not involve every party in palm oil supply chain. In fact, JTF EUDR should make dialogue and confirm every process in palm oil sources.

Palupi said JTF is about to solve every worry in EUDR implementation for smallholders, become the dialogue before EUDR implements. That is why JTF needs to involve every stakeholder and basic transparent principles would be running in JTF.

“Unfortunately, in JTF first meeting, the parties impacted was not involved in” he said in media briefing about JTF EUDR Indonesia-Malaysia, and European Union that InfoSAWIT attended, Thursday (12/10/2023) in Jakarta.

He also proposed that every basic principle, such as, transparency, participation, inclusion, and accountability can be implemented by JTF in order not to leave particular parties behind.

“The smallholders would get the impacts from the policy. They have to be taken in order to suggest field inputs and the principles would deliver positivity,” he said. (T2)