Responding to the European Union’s Anti-Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), Indonesian palm oil farmers are holding a ‘Concern Action’ in front of the European Union Embassy in Jakarta, Wednesday, March 29, 2023.

Representatives of palm oil farmers who will carry out the Concern Action are APKASIND0 (Indonesian Palm Oil Farmers Association), ASPEK-PIR (Association of Palm Oil Farmers of People’s Nucleus Companies), SAMADE (My Palm, My Future), Santri Tani Nahdlatul Ulama, and FORMASI (Palm Oil Student Forum) Indonesia from representatives of 22 Indonesian palm oil provinces.

The EU Commission has agreed to enact the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) on December 6, 2022. This provision will regulate and ensure consumers in the European Union (EU) not to buy products related to deforestation and forest degradation where one of the articles classifies palm oil as from a high-risk crop.

The law applies to a number of commodities, including palm oil, livestock, cocoa, coffee, soy, rubber and timber. It also includes some derivative products, such as leather, chocolate and furniture.

“This provision certainly greatly affects one of Indonesia’s mainstay products, namely palm oil,” said Dr. Gulat ME Manurung during his speech.

Actually, Indonesia has proclaimed sustainable palm oil through ISPO (Indonesia Sustainable Palm Oil) certification since 2011 and continued with the National Action Plan for Sustainable Palm Oil (RAN-KSB) in 2019, then all farming business actors both corporations and oil palm farmers are required to have ISPO through Presidential Regulation Number 44 of 2020 concerning the ISPO Certification System.

In the previous ISPO regulation, only corporations were required (mandatory), while oil palm and palm nut smallholders from Indonesia were only voluntary. Likewise, RSPO certification has been widely adopted by corporations. Even so, only 24,388 hectares or 0.35% of the total area of 6.87 million hectares of smallholder oil palm plantations have successfully passed ISPO certification as of 2022.

“Indeed, this is a big problem because the mandatory ISPO limit for farmers and corporations has been set by the government in 2025. However, what needs to be noted is the government’s enthusiasm in achieving and heading towards sustainable Indonesian palm oil,” Gulat said.

Especially considering that palm oil is the highest state income, especially in the last 5 years and palm oil is a symbol of the glory of Indonesian exports. Naturally, the government is very serious about this sustainable palm oil effort.

Thus, the EU should simply emphasize mandatory certification for palm oil entering EU countries, by choosing one of the certifications either ISPO or RSPO. There is no need to issue EUDR, because in fact EUDR has also been accommodated through the Job Creation Law and is even very firm in the spatial pattern of palm oil.

Source: news.majalahhortus.com