Medan, North Sumatra (13/11) – Amanah Oil Palm Independent Smallholders Association’s, representing almost 350 smallholders, is becoming a success story in driving sustainable palm oil.  Three months after the association—located in Pelalawan District, Riau—received its RSPO certification for sustainable oil palm management, Amanah gained Unilever’s support. The company honour Amanah’s commitment to sustainable oil palm by purchasing their GreenPalm certificates. This will allow the smallholders to further increase their sustainable practices and will drive positive environmental, economic and social impact.

Amanah Association is the first Indonesian independent smallholders to receive RSPO certification, and the second at the global level. Through WWF-Indonesia facilitation process for the certification, Amanah gain continuous support from the Ministry of Agriculture, Provincial and District Government of Riau, RSPO, Asian Agri, and Carrefour Foundation International. After the success, the next step for them is to secure market support for their products.

“WWF-Indonesia appreciates Unilever commitment to support the first certified oil palm smallholders from Indonesia, Amanah. This support will help these local smallholders to maintain their good work to comply with sustainable oil palm management standard, and invest for skill and capacity development. We hope this will also motivate other independent smallholders to mainstream sustainable principles in their practice. At the same time, we expect more companies is willing to commit supporting RSPO certified smallholders group as they are growing”, said Dr. Efransjah, CEO of WWF-Indonesia.

Cherie Tan, Director Sustainable Sourcing and Smallholder Development Unilever, said “The positive impact resulting from a close cooperation between the smallholders, the RSPO and WWF is a testament that partnership is the best way we can lead the transformation of the industry, halt deforestation and deliver a positive social impact for growers and local communities. We are grateful for the role WWF and others have taken so far in getting independent smallholders certified.”

Unilever is one of the companies that received top marks in WWF’s Palm Oil Scorecard 2013 launched recently. This report is a bi-annual report that measures major global retailers and consumer goods producers’ performance with regards to their commitment to support and buy RSPO-certified sustainable palm oil.

A good example of supply chain transformation can be seen in Amanah Association-Unilever agreement. Unilever has agreed to buy from Amanah until 2018, with an appreciative price that considerate Amanah’s hard work to comply with sustainable oil palm management standard. This commitment, starting from 2013, will be hard evidence that oil palm produced by Indonesian independent smallholders is attractive to global palm oil industries. It is a way forward for Indonesian independent smallholders.

For more info, please kindly contact:

Irwan Gunawan, Deputy Director Market Transformation Initiative, WWF-Indonesia.
Email: igunawan@wwf.or.id, Mobile: +62 8128748535

Annisa Ruzuar, Communication Coordinator Market Transformation Initiative, WWF-Indonesia.
Email: asruzuar@wwf.or.id, Mobile: +62 81320044343

Notes for Editors:.

• Amanah Oil Palm Independent Smallholders Association is a legal entity with 349 independent smallholders as its members. The association is facilitated by WWF-Indonesia to get RSPO certificate under group certification scheme. Members of this associaton owned plantation outside Tesso Nilo National Park. Map for Amanah members’ plantations can be downloaded in: http://bit.ly/19yH7uC
• There has been a significant increase in productivity and efficiency of the Amanah’s production process after RSPO P&Cs implementation. Unlike other oil palm associations, Amanah has a dedicated spraying unit team. This practice results in a decrease on herbicide use for oil palm cultivation, from IDR 900,000 ha/year to IDR 400.000 ha/year., Their yield has increased to a projection of 24 tons/ha/year from 20 tons/ha/year before they implemented RSPO P&Cs.
• Purchasing GreenPalm certificate or Book and Claim is one of palm oil supply chain mechanism. The GreenPalm option allows RSPO certified growers to convert their certified oil into certificates, one tonne of certified crude palm oil or palm kernel oil converts to one certificate. Product manufacturers who use palm, palm kernel oil or any palm based derivative and fraction in their products then place offers for these certificates. The claim can be made that the company / product supports the production of RSPO certified sustainable palm oil. For more information see greenpalm.org 
• Based on Ministry of Agriculture data, more than 40% of Indonesia oil palm plantations are managed by smallholders, Riau is the largest producer of palm oil in Indonesia. From 2.1 million hectare plantations in Riau, 1.1 million hectares managed by smallholders, both scheme (affiliated to big companies) and independent smallholders.