Neo Chai Chin Today Online 23 Nov 13;
SINGAPORE — Amid charges that it cleared forests in Kalimantan inhabited by orang-utans, Singapore-listed palm oil group Bumitama Agri has found that it fell short of standards set by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and has stopped planting activities by three of its firms.
Bumitama Agri said it is working with the RSPO on a timeline to address compliance gaps.
Investigations by the company showed it had started activities before complying with procedures required under the roundtable’s criteria.
In a statement on Thursday, Bumitama Agri said it had stopped planting activities by PT Ladang Sawit Mas, PT Nabatindo Karya Utama and PT Andalan Sukses Makmur, and would appoint an independent party to audit planting areas managed by these three firms.
Environment group Greenpeace yesterday released photos taken last week of peatland forests cleared in concession areas linked to Bumitama Agri. An area documented was near the Tanjung Puting National Park in central Kalimantan that had been identified as a buffer zone, according to Greenpeace’s analysis.
Another area covered over 1,000ha in Ketapang in west Kalimantan, which the firm said it would stop developing earlier this year when stranded orang-utans were discovered, said Greenpeace.
A Bumitama Agri spokesperson did not comment on Greenpeace’s charge, but said it was “fully committed to managing the environment responsibly and sustainably”.
The company’s subsidiary had said in September it would cooperate with an animal-welfare group and a government body to monitor and help relocate orang-utans within its concession area in west Kalimantan.
Yesterday, Greenpeace’s Indonesia forest-campaign head Bustar Maitar called on Bumitama Agri to commit to a no-deforestation policy and protect the forests and peatland — wetlands which are rich stores of carbon — in its concessions.
Bumitama Agri said that, despite the compliance gaps, the company did not destroy the forest or kill any orang-utans. It is providing seeds to Tanjung Puting National Park — home to one of the largest remaining orang-utan populations — as part of reforestation efforts, a company spokesperson said.
The company was listed on the Singapore stock exchange last year and has over 133,000ha of palm oil plantations in Sumatra and Kalimantan in Indonesia.
