Summary
- Palm oil farmers in Indonesia have established a new foundation to help farmers around the country in protecting forests and selling their sustainable products to the global market.
- The foundation was established after the Indonesian palm oil farmers union, SPKS, carried out a pilot project in six villages in western Borneo.
- The pilot project proved that smallholders could cultivate palm oil without clearing forests by implementing the high carbon stock (HCS) approach, but they needed incentives and benefits.
- This is where the new foundation, called the Farmers For Forest Protection Foundation (4F), comes in by providing farmers with both financial and non-financial support, like training.
Farmers For Forest Protection Foundation (4F)
A novel foundation named the Farmers For Forest Protection Foundation (4F) has been established by the Indonesian palm oil farmers’ association (SPKS) to aid Indonesian farmers in safeguarding forests and marketing their sustainably produced goods on a global scale.
The foundation addresses the growing demand for deforestation-free and sustainable Indonesian products in markets like the European Union, which has prohibited the trade of commodities originating from deforested areas and illegal sources.
By creating a platform for farmers, 4F aims to bridge the gap between the increasing global demand for sustainable products and the limited support available to smallholders.
Transition costs
“But there’s a cost to produce commodities like palm oil sustainably.
The SPKS estimated that to map, collect data and trace smallholders so they can have legal certificates, at least 200,000 rupiah (US$13) per hectare is needed.
And training small farmers so they can implement good agricultural practices costs up to 500,000 rupiah ($33) per farmer.
Educating smallholders on the sustainability requirements of various certification schemes like the Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO) and the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) requires 5 million rupiah ($330) per village.
To obtain ISPO and RSPO certificates, 3.5 million rupiah ($230) per hectare is needed.
At the same time, smallholders often face various risks such as fluctuating market prices, limited capital, high production costs and low income, especially in times of drought.
“The cost to comply with no deforestation [requirements] is not insignificant,” Darto said. “That’s why we form a separate foundation to collect the funding [needed].”
The foundation will source funds from private, governmental, and corporate donors, including consumer goods companies, to provide assistance to small farmers in activities such as land mapping, legal certification, training, agroforestry, and accessing fair markets. This initiative aims to support environmentally conscious farming practices while empowering smallholders in Indonesia.
EU Access
To ensure smallholders’ products can be accepted in sustainability markets like the EU, they will use methodologies that identify areas with high carbon stock (HCS) and high conservation value (HCV).
These areas are off limits from deforestation.
The SPKS has tried using the HCS approach to dispel the narrative that private companies often use, in which they blame deforestation in their concessions on small farmers, Darto said.
“I’m sure there’s still a lot of companies not brave enough to implement the HCS standard,” he said. “But we at the SPKS dare [to use it] so that smallholders could get connected to the global market.”
The SPKS tried the HCS approach in six villages, and it proved to be possible for smallholders to use the methodology to produce palm oil without deforesting.
Source: Mongabay by Hans-Nicholas Jong
