Policy, practice, pride and prejudice: review of legal, environmental and social practices of oil palm plantation companies of the Wilmar group in Sambas district, West Kalimantan (Indonesia)
Oil palm plantation companies of the Wilmar group: the gap between policy and practice
Authors: A. Zakaria; C. Theile; L. Khaimur
Publisher: Friends of the Earth International , 2007
This report presents a review of the environmental, social and legal policies and actual practices of three oil palm plantation companies related to the Wilmar Group, a large corporate conglomerate with its origins in Indonesia.
The main finding of the report is that current plantation development practices of Wilmar’s subsidiaries in Sambas District in West Kalimantan are in conflict with:
* the public corporate social responsibility policies of the Wilmar group
* Indonesia’s legislation
* the principles and criteria of the roundtable on sustainable palm oil.
The authors highlight that this gap between policy and practice leads to environmental damage and social unrest and undermines good governance of the palm oil sector.
Recommendations to Wilmar and its stakeholders include:
* Wilmar’s management should halt all new nursery, land clearing and plantation development until the relevant legal authorities have issued approval of the environmental impact assessment reports
* Wilmar should continue to pay salaries to permanent workers of PT Wilmar Sambas Plantation and PT Buluh Cawang Plantation to bridge the period of time until all relevant legal requirements are met
Source:
Eldis - Sharing the best in development policy, practice and research
http://www.eldis.org/go/display&type=Document&id=34810
