AIM

The policy accelerator project aims at overcoming barriers in achieving accountable and deforestation-free Indonesia’s Palm Oil Supply Chain, due to a lack of policy and regulatory aspects that includes (but not exhaustively to) incentives, regulatory measures, traceability and monitoring systems, and governance reforms that enable and motivate actors including small-scale growers to achieve global net zero targets.

WHERE

National level (Indonesia)

WHY

Currently, more than 59% of world palm oil production comes from Indonesia. With an area of 16.38 million ha, Indonesia produces 45.5 million tons of CPO per year, 41% of which comes from smallholder oil palm plantations with a total of 2.5 million smallholders. 

On the other hand, the global market for soft commodities continues to grow and demands deforestation-free and sustainable commodity production. The latest development is the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) which prohibits wood products, palm oil, cocoa, rubber coffee, soybeans, and livestock products produced from deforestation after 31 December 2020 entering the European Union market. 

A traceability system for commodities is also one of the demands of the EUDR policy. Even though there have been many initiatives and commitments to realize traceability to land (Traceability to Plantation) from large palm oil companies, Indonesia has not yet fully succeeded in implementing this principle in its commodity supply chain.

The readiness of smallholders is one of the main challenges because the registration of growers in the national system is not yet fully implemented. Information on the geolocation of plantation land from each farmer is still limited and difficult to verify for traceability purposes and proving EUDR due diligence.

In response to this, Indonesia has issued a regulatory package to strengthen sustainability and traceability initiatives in the palm oil sector. This initiative prioritizes data collection, assessment, and certification of business actors and businesses in plantations, primary industry, and downstream industry. Reducing deforestation is the main requirement for the principles of land legality and environmental management that must be adhered to by plantation businesses, both companies and smallholders.

HOW

The Policy Accelerator Project builds strategic collaboration with the Indonesian Government under the coordination of the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs as the leading ministry and technical ministries especially the Ministry of Agriculture, to find innovation and accelerate the implementation of policies that have been prepared. In carrying out this role, WRI Indonesia collaborates with the World Resources Institute, Indonesian Science Fund (DIPI), and the Indonesian Ecolabelling Institute (LEI) to strengthen the acceptance and recognition of policy stakeholders.

This work contributes directly to the workstream of the Climate Solutions Partnership, a 5-year initiative that aims to remove barriers to finance for companies and projects that tackle climate change and bring them to scale. 

Acceleration is carried out through a peer-to-peer learning process for policymakers across ministries and key stakeholders to evaluate and monitor the performance of policy implementation and find obstacles and solutions that can be taken. From this process, scientific/evidence-based policy innovations and action plans are formulated by the parties involved.

PARTNERS

Dana Ilmu Pengetahuan Indonesia (DIPI), Lembaga Ekolabel Indonesia (LEI).

This project also supported by World Resources Institute and HSBC

MAIN CONTACT

Rostanto Suprapto (Policy Accelerator Project Lead, Rostanto.Suprapto@wri.org)