{"id":4087,"date":"2020-06-19T09:54:21","date_gmt":"2020-06-19T02:54:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/southeastasia\/?p=4087"},"modified":"2024-05-29T10:50:38","modified_gmt":"2024-05-29T03:50:38","slug":"greenpeaces-response-to-sime-darby-announcement-to-exit-from-the-hcsa-steering-committee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/southeastasia\/press\/4087\/greenpeaces-response-to-sime-darby-announcement-to-exit-from-the-hcsa-steering-committee\/","title":{"rendered":"Greenpeace\u2019s Response to Sime Darby Announcement to Exit from the HCSA Steering Committee"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>In response to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.simedarbyplantation.com\/media\/news-highlights\/sime-darby-plantation-sdp-announces-exit-hcsa-steering-committee\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Sime Darby announcement to exit from the HCSA steering committee<\/a>, Grant Rosoman Global Forest Solutions Coordinator for Greenpeace International said:<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cThis move by Sime Darby shows the consistent failure of key plantation companies to show they are serious about ending deforestation. Sime Darby has yet to provide full transparency and a clean supply chain, including maps for its third party suppliers. Its withdrawal from HCSA only begs the question: how will it measure and verify and report on its commitments given its poor track record?\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>Sime Darby\u2019s exit from the HCSA, the most credible and widely supported tool to implement \u2018no deforestation\u2019, comes<a href=\"http:\/\/www.simedarbyplantation.com\/sites\/default\/files\/download\/20180830-SDP-Roadmap-to-No-Deforestation.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"> after failing to meet the crucial objective of<\/a> \u201celiminating deforestation from the production of agricultural commodities such as palm oil, soy, paper and beef products by no later than 2020\u201d that it signed up to as a signatory of the New York Declaration on Forests [1]. By exiting the HCSA, Sime Darby is dodging the membership requirement to provide evidence of its implementation of NDPE across its supply chains.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n<p>Sime Darby also has a history of selling its way out of its No Deforestation, No Peat, No Exploitation (NDPE) commitments:<\/p>\n\n<p>. When the company <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forestpeoples.org\/en\/palm-oil-rspo\/press-release\/2019\/press-release-unsustainable-sime-darby-buyers-and-financiers-must\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">had major land rights disputes in relation to its plantation PT&nbsp; MAS in West Kalimantan<\/a>, it simply sold the plantation instead of resolving them.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n<p>. In 2019, Sime Darby divested ownership from its Liberia operations that were plagued with reports of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forestpeoples.org\/sites\/fpp\/files\/publication\/2012\/12\/liberiacontractanalysisfinaldec2012_0.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">&nbsp;human rights violations<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.liberianobserver.com\/news\/shooting-at-sime-darby-plantation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">violence <\/a>and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.business-humanrights.org\/pt\/node\/172033\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">allegations of torture.&nbsp;<\/a><\/p>\n\n<p>. Its operations and suppliers have been <a href=\"https:\/\/storage.googleapis.com\/planet4-international-stateless\/2019\/12\/20191205-True-Cost-of-Palm-Oil-and-Pulp.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">linked to catastrophic peatland fires from 2015 through 2018<\/a> in Indonesia.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n<p>. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/malaysia\/publication\/2620\/burning-down-the-house-how-unilever-and-other-global-brands-continue-to-fuel-indonesias-fires\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">A Greenpeace International investigation <\/a>found Sime Darby was one of the palm oil groups with the highest number of fire hotspots associated with its concessions in Indonesia in 2019. After last year\u2019s burning season, air pollution from forest fires <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unicef.org\/press-releases\/indonesia-10-million-children-risk-air-pollution-due-wild-forest-fires\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">put nearly 10 million children at risk <\/a>according to the United Nations<\/p>\n\n<p>Sime Darby,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/southeastasia\/press\/3746\/wilmar-internationals-exit-from-the-high-carbon-stock-approach-marks-its-failure-to-end-deforestation\/#:~:text=Wilmar%20has%20exited%20from%20being,no%20deforestation%20in%20supply%20chains.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"> like Wilmar International<\/a> who also exited HCSA in April,&nbsp; shows that NDPE commitments are merely a PR exercise. Meanwhile, the palm oil sector continues to be mired in corruption, land theft and&nbsp; human rights violations, and remains a leading driver of deforestation with all its climate and biodiversity impacts.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n<p><strong>Notes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<p>[1] Sime Darby was a signatory of The New York Declaration on Forests which arose from the United Nations Secretary-General\u2019s Climate Summit held in New York in 2014. See <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20171207232400\/https:\/\/www.un.org\/climatechange\/summit\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2014\/07\/New-York-Declaration-on-Forests_19May2014.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">original declaration text here<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n<p><strong>Notes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<p>Sol Gosetti, International Communications Coordinator, Indonesia Forest campaign, Greenpeace Southeast Asia <a href=\"mailto:sol.gosetti@greenpeace.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">sol.gosetti@greenpeace.org<\/a>, +44 (0) 7807352020<\/p>\n<div class=\"EmptyMessage\">Block content is empty. Check the block&#8217;s settings or remove it.<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In response to Sime Darby announcement to exit from the HCSA steering committee, Grant Rosoman Global Forest Solutions Coordinator for Greenpeace International said:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"not set","p4_local_project":"not set","p4_basket_name":"not set","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[35,33],"tags":[84,99],"p4-page-type":[14],"class_list":["post-4087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-air-pollution","category-forests","tag-peatlands","tag-indonesia","p4-page-type-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/southeastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/southeastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/southeastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/southeastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/89"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/southeastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4087"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/southeastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4087\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44910,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/southeastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4087\/revisions\/44910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/southeastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/southeastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/southeastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4087"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/southeastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=4087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}