“This official reprimand by the RSPO confirms that that Indonesian palm oil giant, Sinar Mas, has been misleading its customers and shareholders. The company claims to be operating responsibly but in fact it has repeatedly broken Indonesian law and violated RSPO rules as well as its own sustainability commitments.”
“Greenpeace welcomes the fact that the RSPO has finally issued a warning to Sinar Mas that it could face expulsion if it fails to clean up its operations. However, given the seriousness of the allegations, it should immediately and publicly suspend Sinar Mas subsidiaries’ membership and expel the company within four weeks if it does not take action,” said Greenpeace Indonesia forest campaigner, Bustar Maitar.
Greenpeace supports a sustainable palm oil industry. However, its investigations have repeatedly shown that Sinar Mas is not operating responsibly but is destroying rainforests and peatlands in Indonesia. This was recently confirmed by an independent audit, commissioned by Sinar Mas subsidiary SMART itself, which concluded that the group:
- had cleared deep peat in breach of Indonesian law;
- was operating without the necessary environmental permits in 8 out of the 11 concessions audited;
- had violated RSPO rules on High Conservation Value (HCV) forests in 10 out of 11 areas covered by the audit.
In the letters, the RSPO also demands that Golden Agri Resources (GAR), which is not a member of the Roundtable, stops telling its stakeholders that it is in the process of obtaining RSPO certification, or publicly claiming that it plans to become an RSPO member since it has filed no membership application. To date, only two GAR direct subsidiaries, PT Smart and PT Ivo Mas, are members of the sustainability body so the company is not in a position to make such claims under RSPO rules.
The Sinar Mas Group is the biggest palm oil and pulp and paper producer in Indonesia. (3) Currently, it is expanding into forested areas in Sumatra, Kalimantan and Papua, threatening the habitat of endangered species like the orang-utan and the Sumatran tiger. A number of multinationals have already suspended their contracts with the Sinar Mas Group due to concerns over its environmental track record.
“Greenpeace is calling on other companies, like Cargill, to follow Unilever, Nestlé and Kraft’s lead and cancel its palm oil contracts with Sinar Mas until it stops destroying rainforest and carbon rich peatlands. We are also urging the Indonesian Government to expand its upcoming moratorium on the granting of new concessions to cover the vast areas of rainforest have already been slated for destruction under existing concessions, and to protect the country’s carbon-rich peatlands,” said Maitar.
Notes to editors:
(1) The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) was set up in 2004 to try to improve the sustainability of the palm oil industry. It is made up of producers, traders and consumer companies.
(2) See the statement at:
http://www.rspo.org/?q=page/1518
The three letters were removed shortly after being uploaded. They are available from Greenpeace on request or at:
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/publications/reports/RSPO-letters/
For comment from the RSPO Secretariat please call: +60 16 213 2052
(3) Sinar Mas’ pulp and paper company is Asia Pulp & Paper, notorious for its role in rainforest destruction. For previous Greenpeace reports: http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/forests/asia-pacific/Palm-oil-reports/
Contact:
Bustar Maitar, Greenpeace Indonesia forest campaigner: +62 813 4466 6135