InfoSAWIT, SIAK – In Regency of Siak where it is dominated by plantation sectors, the private plays vital roles to develop economy sustainably. One initiative was the establishment of Private Sector Coalition for Green Siak or Koalisi Private Sektor untuk Siak Hijau (KPSSH) in September 2019, as the realization to support Siak Hijau to reinforce coordination and work program synergy in the regency through jurisdictional landscape approach.
Palm oil plantations have become one sector with the fast progress in Regency of Siak. But the biggest challenge is to realize sustainable palm oil. According to data published by Agriculture Agency Regency of Siak, palm oil plantation canopy in the regency laid on about 328.872,68 hectares; the companies cultivated 120.797,68 hectares while the smallholders cultivated 208.075 hectares.
But palm oil plantations that have got Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO) certificates just reached 14 percent or about 48.840,07 hectares from the total palm oil plantations. While the regency targeted every palm oil plantation developing in the regency should get ISPO certificate in 2025.
In this context the big companies, such as, Wilmar, played significant roles. Wilmar adopted NDPE (No Deforestation, No Peat, No Exploitation) policy as part of its commitment to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles, as same as the vision in Siak Hijau. Wilmar actively involves to empower smallholders in the regency by focusing to escalate their capacity, develop good agricultural practices and get ISPO certification process.
Since it involved in the program, Wilmar successfully got partnership with independent smallholders’ unions in Regency of Siak, empowered thousand smallholders, helped some to get ISPO certificate.
“Since actively involving in independent smallholders’ empowerment, Wilmar gets partnership, develops five independent smallholders’ unions in Regency of Siak with the members about 1.500 men,” Sustainability Head Wilmar, Pujuh Kurniawan as in the official statement to InfoSAWIT, Saturday (23/3/2024).
Pujuh also mentioned, of the total developed smallholders, two unions got ISPO certificate in 2019, 2 are in process to accomplish ISPO certificate by the early of 2024, and the last one is in process to prepare ISPO certification process. The program runs with other related stakeholders in the regency, such as, PT. Permodalan Siak (PERSI), plantation agency, and others.
Besides in Siak, Wilmar does the same program in other provinces, such as, Jambi, North Sumatera, and West Kalimantan. Of the whole program, Wilmar does partnership and development to 14 independent smallholders’ groups with the total members about 5.760 men and the plantations about 12.584 hectares. In a whole, nine of the groups got ISPO certificate and the plantations laid about 8.992 hectares and involved 3.707 independent smallholders.
The success of Wilmar in partnership development with independent smallholders heading to sustainable agricultural practices delivered good samples for private sectors to develop sustainable development.
Then, to reach out the goals of Siak Hijau, KPSSH and Secretariat of Siak Hijau took other stakeholders to actively contribute. Through the workshop and other activities, they would escalate the understanding that sustainable palm oil industries and getting ISPO certificates are important. The collaboration among the government, private, and the people would be the key to realize green and sustainable landscape in Siak.
The workshop was managed by EcoNusantara in cooperation with KPSSH and supported by Wilmar. It was joined by the parties involved in Siak Hijau implementation – particularly who develop sustainable palm oil. The speakers were Prof. Sudarsono from Institut Pertanian Bogor that delivered materials about sustainable people’s economy; Dr. Rismansyah from Forum Pengembangan Perkebunan Strategis Berkelanjutan (FP2SB) that discussed about ISPO certification process for independent smallholders, from PT PERSI and independent smallholders’ union that is in partnership with Wilmar. They shared their experiences to get ISPO certificate. (T2)
