InfoSAWIT, JAKARTA – In the past 13 years, Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO) program would always be encouraged for the planters to implement both the companies and independent smallholders. Until now, ISPO certification realization is far from the target. Of the total palm oil plantations in Indonesia that laid on about 16,38 million hectares, only 5,84 million hectares or 35,6% got certified with the new certification about 1.077.
Since 2019, the government has conducted pre-condition through the policy - Rencana Aksi Nasional Kelapa Sawit Berkelanjutan (RAN KSB) that would be until 2024. The policy would be about to confirm the planters’ preparedness to get mandatory regulation of IPSO. RAN KSB also delivered mandates for the regional and central governments to improve plantation governance through some series of program that national budget, reginal budget, and multi-party cooperation would support.
But RAN KSB is minimally adopted in many regions. Until now only 10 provinces and 22 regencies implemented the related policy. The main challenges for the planters to get ISPO implementation are the expensive cost for certification process, the complicated process, the legal, the lack of socialization, limited capacity of human resources, and institutions. The characteristic of the smallholders in many regions multiplied the complicated issue to implement ISPO certificate.
Director of Plantation Product Marketing and Process, Prayudi Syamsuri said the government would try to revise the regulation about sustainable palm oil practices in Indonesia to solve such challenges.
“We are still formulating the revision to president’s regulation about ISPO by revising the Regulation of Minister of Agriculture Number 38 / 2020 about ISPO Certification System and President’s Regulation Number 44 / 2020 about ISPO," Prayudi said in a dialogue with the theme “Percepatan Sertifikasi ISPO Bagi Para Pelaku Usaha Perkebunan Kelapa Sawit Melalui Pendekatan Yurisdiksi”, in the spare time of Bunex 2024 that InfoSAWIT attended at ICE BSD in the midst of September 2024.
He thought, the revision would be about to ease the sustainable principle - fulfillment in palm oil plantation practices while maintaining the integrated principles. The concrete things to do would be about to accelerate the publication of cultivation documents, support the fund in ISPO process through Palm Oil Plantation Fund Management Agency (PO PFMA).
“We would focus to accelerate the implementation and get the balance between process simplification and maintaining sustainability aspects,” he said.
Prayudi also mentioned that the government would do some things to integrate technology in the verification process to increase efficiency and accuracy in the new regulation fulfillment.
“We are optimist that by the new approach, we would be more responsive to what the markets demand on sustainable palm oil products globally,” Prayudi said. (T2)
