The Director General of Plantation as the Chairman of ISPO Commission, Ir. Bambang, deemed that it was necessary to have an agreement and provide rewards for the companies that have obtained good assessment result.
“Therefore, to increase the commitment of all stakeholders in promoting the ISPO certification programs and strengthening the development of sustainable palm oil, we have to make ISPO to be more acceptable in order to build the national and international confidence, and convince the world that companies that own ISPO certificate have fulfilled the standard of sustainable palm oil in Indonesia, while enhancing the productivity and the added-value of palm oil,” said Bambang.
On the occasion, the representative of Tunas Sawa Erma Group, Mr. Robert Seung, expressed his gratitude upon the government’s attention, especially to the Director General of Plantation of the Ministry of Agriculture.
“I am very grateful for the appreciation that has been given by the government, especially the Director General of Plantation of the Ministry of Agriculture, on our efforts in the practices and commitment to the prevention and the control of land and forest fire in palm oil plantation in the eastern part of Indonesia, particularly in Papua province,” he said.
“Regarding the award that has been rewarded to us (TSE Group) by the government, in this occasion, we hope that there will be more private companies, specialized in palm oil plantation, that increase their commitment in supporting the ISPO certification program to strengthen the development of sustainable palm oil. And we always try to adhere to the government’s regulations, commit to the environmental preservation, and develop the local economy and society,” he said.
Tunas Sawa Erma Group (TSE) is one of the companies that become the object of study with three companies engaged in palm oil plantation in Papua. BPKH of X Region records that there are 30 palm oil companies in Papua that have good land legality and is located in APL, compared to the extent of APL in Papua which is 47.75% or 828,130.39 ha.
The number of palm oil companies that have been ISPO certified is still relatively smal. According to the Head of Plantation Division of the Plantation Office of Papua Province, there are only five companies among which have obtained the ISPO certificate, while the others are still being processed.
PT Tunas Sawa Erma has been ISPO certified since December 2016, while the certification for PT Dongin Prabhawa (DP) and PT Berkat Cipta Abadi (BCA) are still being processed. It proves the commitment of the companies in adhering to the applicable regulations in Indonesia.
The three companies (PT TSE, PT DP, and PT BCA) have prepared the necessary equipments and facilities for fire control in the plantation area. The facilities include the fire monitoring tower, transportations, weather recording device, water bag, and fire extinguishers. Moreover, the companies have allocated a special reserve funds for fire controlling with the value adjusted to the occurred circumstances.
The study of the three companies (PT TSE, PT DP, and PT BCA), which have criteria on their land clearing and fire control method, shows that they have had SOP of the fire control with trained and reliable human resources in accordance with the provisions of the Forestry Minister Regulation 32/2016 Article 43. The companies execute frequent capacity building on the Forest and Land Fire Control (Dalkarhutla) of the companies by training, equipping, and technical guidance.
The facilities and infrastructures of land fire control and simulation, as well as socialization of forest fires in cooperation with the government, police, military, medical team, TSE fire alert team, and the communities, are often held by TSE team.
Tunas Sawa Erma Group, according to its role in improving the local economy such as palm oil industry, has a quite long and interconnected business chain starting from land preparation, seding, supporting industry, processing from the upstream to downstream industry, the development of palm oil plantation in Papua in this case.
Papua is pursuing its development pace in all fields. It is also a forest area that has to be maintained, and the local economic growth of Papua has been above the national economic growth for the past five years.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
