Jakarta – WWF-Indonesia welcomes and conveys the highest appreciation on the release of the Agriculture Minister’s official letter regarding the temporary ban on issuing new Plantation Business Permits (IUP) for palm oil development on peat lands.

The call from the Minister of Agriculture Anton Apriyanto is delivered in the Ministerial Letter No. 301/TU.210/M/12/2007 on the Land Utilisation for Sustainable Palm Oil Development. The letter, dated 13 December 2007, is addressed to all Governors in Indonesia and also forwarded to the Minister of Forestry, State Minister of Environment, Regents and Heads of Provincial Plantation Offices in Indonesia.

“WWF-Indonesia believes that the Agriculture Minister’s call reflects the spirit of sustainable practices of palm oil development in Indonesia ,” said Mubariq Ahmad, Executive Director of WWF-Indonesia.

In the letter, the Minister stated that the prospect of palm oil industrial development in Indonesia must be in line with the spirit of sustainable palm oil development. In order to accomplish that, the Minister call for the Governors to encourage the entrepreneurs who have received the IUP to carry out their activities immediately, and to revoke the IUP if the entrepreneurs do not implement their programmes in the field in accordance with the prevailing regulations.

Furthermore, it is also required that the IUP could only be granted to the areas, which are technically suitable and in line with the regulations for sustainable forest functions. Specifically for peat lands, the issuance of new IUP is temporarily banned while waiting for the research result conducted by the Research and Development Agency of Agriculture.