http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/home/sinar-mas-censured-over-audit/397810
Sinar Mas Censured Over Audit September 24, 2010 Land owned by Indonesian palm oil giant Smart is cleared in Ketapang, West Kalimantan, in August. The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil publicly slammed Smart on Thursday in response to an August audit that found the company had violated Indonesian forestry laws. (Reuters Photo) An industry association for sustainable palm oil publicly censured a member for the first time on Thursday, saying Indonesia's Sinar Mas Agro Resources & Technology breached the group's principles and may face sanctions as a result. The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil - an industry body of planters, green groups and consumers - announced on its Web site that its grievance panel had written to Smart and its parent company, Golden Agri-Resources, censuring the firms for breaches uncovered last month by an audit of Smart. Smart is a member of the RSPO; Golden Agri is not. The audit, conducted after Greenpeace alleged that Smart had bulldozed high-conservation -value forests and damaged carbon-rich peatlands, gave the palm-oil producer a mixed report card, highlighting some instances in which it violated Indonesia's environmental laws. The RSPO's comments may be a blow to Smart's efforts to win back big palm-oil buyers including Burger King, Nestle and Unilever, who have said they would stop buying from Smart because of environmental concerns. "In its letter to Smart and GAR, the panel finds there has been serious non-compliance with the RSPO code of conduct, specifically a failure by Smart to work towards implementation and certification of the RSPO principles and criteria," the organization said. In particular, the firms had infringed upon RSPO principles on social and environmental impact assessments and peatland management, it said. In a response to the statement, Smart said it would work toward meeting the requirements set by the RSPO, including making environmental-impact assessments and deep peatland conservation efforts. "We take the feedback of our stakeholders very seriously and this applies to the concerns of the RSPO, whom we are in touch with," Dauh Dharsono, president director of Smart, said on Thursday. "In the case of community engagement and social impacts, Smart believes in treating local landowners and communities fairly and will be commissioning a separate research to study its social impact on the community." With regards to peat conservation, the palm oil giant said it had "taken the necessary remedial actions including reinstating the land and moving forward, [and] it will be working with stakeholders on the overall management of peat including those areas that have been developed." But Smart's apologetic stance might not be enough for the RSPO, which announced: "Members who have been found to not be in compliance and who continue to be in non-compliance with the RSPO regulations could ultimately face sanctions, including the suspension and, eventually, the termination, of their membership." The RSPO also urged GAR to stop publicly suggesting it was in the process of obtaining RSPO certification. "GAR is not a member of the RSPO, nor has the RSPO yet received a membership application from the company. The panel encourages GAR to submit a full and complete application for membership," the statement said. Smart said it had written to the RSPO on Sept. 6 to seek advice on a membership application for parent company GAR. Greenpeace welcomed the RSPO's condemnation of Smart, saying the group should follow up on its reprimand by expelling the palm oil producer within four weeks if it did not take action. "Greenpeace is calling on other companies, like Cargill, to follow Unilever, Nestle and Kraft in canceling its palm oil contracts with Sinar Mas until it stops destroying rainforest and carbon rich peatlands," Greenpeace activist Bustar Maitar said. Enormous amounts of climate-warming gases are released when deep peatlands are disturbed, and the deforestation of Indonesia's extensive tropical forests led the World Bank to name the country the world's third-worst emitter in a report issued in 2007. Reuters [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ Post message: [email protected] Subscribe : [email protected] Unsubscribe : [email protected] List owner : [email protected] Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
