Climate Change and Social gJustice

Indonesia Experiences with Palm Oil Sector: NGO perspectiveSector: NGO perspective

P i bPresentation byNorman Jiwan

Research Staff, Sawit Watch

Civil Society on Climate Change & JusticeSida Civil Society Center Härnösand SwedenSida Civil Society Center, Härnösand, Sweden,

August 25-27, 2008

OutlineOutline

• IntroductionIntroduction • Indonesian palm oil industry

O i i t i l d• Ongoing impacts on social and environmental

• Biofuel of oil palm agrofuel cultivations• Emerging issues g g• Conclusion remarks

19/07/2011

Indonesia & facts• 192.197.000 ha in land size;• 17 000 islands 5 big ones• 17,000 islands, 5 big ones • 240 million population (2007);• 30-60 million are forest-dependent peoples;30 60 million are forest dependent peoples;• App. 30 million are indigenous peoples;• 10% per cent of the remaining tropical;

f t i th ld i t i I d iforests in the world exists in Indonesia;• This forest hosts vast biodiversity resources

with 10% of all the plants species;with 10% of all the plants species; • 12% of all the mammal species; • 16% of all the reptiles;• and 17% of all birds.

Indonesian Oil palm history and industry

• Oil palm is non-native plant imported from West Africa by the Dutch in 1848 and 4 seedlings y ggrown in Bogor botanical garden;

• First large-scale and commercial plantation established in 1911established in 1911

• 30 big groups (national/multinational) • control more than 600 oil palm plantation p p

subsidiaries • Within five years (1999-2004) an annual planting

rate to have reached 400 100 hectaresrate to have reached 400,100 hectares• Cultivate 7.3 MHa planted oil palm (Dec 2007)• Estimated 600,000 to 1 Mha (palm oil used for , (p

biodiesel production) future expansion annually

Palm oil ‘ ki d ti th li t ’‘cooking and eating the climate’

D f t ti l l l i i d• Deforestation: legal logging primary and natural forestsC i f l d d d d d• Conversion of logged and degraded forests to plantationsF t d l d fi• Forest and land fires

• Peatland drainages and conversions • POMEs (palm oil mill effluents) • Agrochemicals application (paraquat,

WHO Type IA & IIB, etc.)

Another Inconvenient Truth: O f I t ti l B i fi POxfam International Briefing Paper

• Estimates that by 2020, the emissions resulting from land use change in the palm oil sector may haveland-use change in the palm oil-sector may have reached between 3.1 and 4.6 billion tonnes of CO2 – 46 to 68 times the annual saving the EU hopes to be achieving by then from biofuels;achieving by then from biofuels;

• Most disastrous is the production of palm oil-based biodiesel from the conversion of Indonesian peatland

i l f i i 420 f bi f l d itropical forest, requiring 420 years of biofuel production to pay back the carbon debt;

• Crutzen et.al investigated emissions of nitrous oxide, a g ,GHG 296 time more potent than carbon dioxide, released through decomposition of nitrogen-based fertilisers;;

• Our organisation, Sawit Watch reveals that:

Oil palm plantations/operations overlapping with peatlands and forestedoverlapping with peatlands and forested

peatlands

Oil palm plantations/operations overlapping with peatland andoverlapping with peatland and

forested peatland

Hotspots (potential land and forest fires) in Kalimantan and Sumatra (May to July 2007)

There are 514 conflictsThere are 514 conflicts affected local communities

and indigenous peoples (D 2007)(Dec 2007)

1.8 Mha Mega Oil Palm Plantation Project(Kalimantan/Borneo Border)(Kalimantan/Borneo Border)

Emerging Food SovereigntyEmerging Food Sovereignty

Strategic activities (Response)• Legal advocacy – court processes • Non-legal approaches – lobby and negotiation;

community empowerment • Play dual-strategy (insiders and outsiders)• Develop adaptation and mitigation strategies• Develop adaptation and mitigation strategies • Lobby and awareness raising campaign to

stakeholders:– Community and affected peoples– Local & central governments– Local parliament & National parliamentLocal parliament & National parliament– Plantation companies– Investors

P l il b– Palm oil buyers– NGOs in Local, National & International

Campaign and Networkingp g g• International: participate and attend international fora,

f i i dt blconferences, seminars, symposiums, roundtables – With AMAN prepared paper for presentation before UNPFii – With Oxfam and WWF worked to formulate social and

i t l t d d (RSPO P i i l d C it i )environmental standards (RSPO Principles and Criteria)– With FPP-UK shared experiences with Brazil Soy Coalition and

the Dutch Soy Coalition (Roundtable on Responsible Soy???)R dt bl S t i bl Bi f l (RSB)???– Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels (RSB)???

• National (with WWF work to promote high social and environmental standards) trough National Interpretation

d llh ld k f I d iand smallholders task force Indonesia, etc. • Local (campaign and networks at provincial against

mega oil palm border project, forest and land fires, etc.) g p p j , , )

Process & Results• RSPO adopted 8 principles and 39 criteria • UNPFii (6th) Chairperson presented working paper title• UNPFii (6th) Chairperson presented working paper title

‘Oil Palm and Other Commercial Tree Plantations, Monocropping: Impacts on Indigenous Peoples’ Land Tenure and Resource Management Systems andTenure and Resource Management Systems and Livelihoods’

• Submission to CERD Committee under its Urgent A ti d E l W i P d ( d d l tAction and Early Warning Procedures (send delegate to the 71st Session); obervations and recommendations

• Complaint to IFC/CAO Field Visits and Observations; p ;ongoing mediated-negotiation processes;

• Complaint to RSPO against its member under ‘Grievance Process’; approach to stop operating inGrievance Process ; approach to stop operating in disputed areas;

Outstanding problems – national • Contradictory laws, which fail to secure indigenous rights

while encouraging land expropriation for commercialwhile encouraging land expropriation for commercial projects in the ‘national interest’;

• Absence of regulations, as a result of which procedures for the recognition of the collective land rights offor the recognition of the collective land rights of customary law communities are unclear;

• Weak institutional capacity, both in the national land i d i th di t i t b i hi h kagencies and in the district bureaucracies, which makes

recognition of customary rights difficult; • National and regional policies and spatial planning g p p p g

processes which favour the conversion of customary land and forests into oil palm plantations to increase national and district revenues.

Outstanding Problems – int’l k h imarket mechanisms

• Mandatory market rules?Mandatory market rules? • Voluntary criteria:

– National InterpretationNational Interpretation– Certification– Complaints– Chain of custody– Control of claims

• EU Directive Policy (biofuels mandatory targets)• Uncontrolled market (India and China)• Renewable energy demands

Key demandsy• Reduce consumptions (demands) rather than

expanding uses of agrofuel cultivationsp g g• The consumers to select and purchase products,

which have been produced with sustainable raw materials with thoughtful considerations formaterials with thoughtful considerations for biodiversity

• Markets and consumers are held accountable to th i i t l l itithe ongoing impacts on local communities, indigenous peoples, smallholders, workers and women in producing countriesp g

• Concrete actions to deal with ongoing global forest reduction and degradation, and to realize social justicejustice.

Sawit Watch recommends • Immediate binding-control on ecological

(carbon) footprints:( ) p– Reduce consumption pressures (expansion,

deforestation, conversion)– Mitigate ongoing negative impacts (droughtMitigate ongoing negative impacts (drought,

depletion, desertification, melting, etc.)– Adapt technology and information (building capacity

and empowerment to cope with ‘unconditionedand empowerment to cope with unconditioned conditions’, fish and animal migrations, seasonal changes in agriculture practices and harvests, etc…)

• Urgent binding-actions to ongoing social crisis:Urgent binding actions to ongoing social crisis:– Corrective actions against violations (remedy)– Adopt effective social accountability (resolution)

E h iti i t ti ( t i bl– Enhance positive interactions (sustainable development)

Concluding remarksD f di l ’ i hDefending peoples’ rights

• Sawit Watch believes that:– Mandatory remedies to past abuses against

indigenous peoples and local communities (civil andindigenous peoples and local communities (civil and political, economic, social and cultural) pre-condition

– Actively promotes the implementation of free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) restitution Promotes the wider use of human rights based– Promotes the wider use of human rights based approaches to developments (HRBA) promotion

– Development without justice is not development, it is p j pexloitation!