Desy Nurhayati, The Jakarta Post 25 Feb 10;
The Environment Ministry has issued another warning against palm oil companies that have failed to abide by the environmental standards set under the compliance instrument of the Environmental Performance Rating Program (Proper).
Environment Minister Gusti Muhammad Hatta said Tuesday that companies deemed to have failed in environmental management efforts after two consecutive assessments would be taken to court.
“We will first approach the companies to find out if they face any obstacles in implementing the standards. But if they still fail to comply a second time, we will bring them to court,” Gusti said on the sidelines of the International Palm Oil Conference.
“The 2009 Environmental Protection and Management Law enables us to act more firmly,” he added.
The minister said that out of 209 registered palm oil companies, only 81 were listed on the rating program as of last year.
“Out of the 81 companies, between 60 and 70 percent have earned good ratings, while the remaining are still disobedient.”
The Proper scheme is aimed at improving companies’ commitment to environmental management. The ratings are set in five categories of color.
The highest rating is “Gold”, which is granted to businesses that have successfully conducted environmental management efforts and gained good results.
A “Green” rating is for companies that have made the same effort, but achieved better results.
“Blue” is for companies that have achieved the minimum requirement standard, while “red” is for companies that have achieved a part of the minimum standard. The lowest category of “black” is given to companies that do not engage in any environmental management.
The minister’s deputy, Masnellyarti Hilman, added the minister had already brought several noncompliant firms to court.
“Some of the court rules were in favor of us, but others didn’t meet our expectation.”
The ministry therefore provided training for judges and prosecutors dealing with cases of environmental violation.
Palm oil companies are often blamed for massive forest conversion in many areas across the
archipelago.
Wiwin Effendy, World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) national coordinator of the forest conversion program, said companies should stop converting forest into plantations and make use of degraded or unused lands for expansion.
“There are still many degraded lands available to be developed into palm oil plantations. We have conducted research and found there are more than 1 million hectares of land that meets the ecological requirements for palm oil cropping.”
Agriculture Minister Suswono said the government had issued permits for the development of palm oil estates for 9.7 million hectares.
