EUDR: Looking beyond the canopy to consider the human aspects of trade
9 julho 2024
While trade partners and companies are asking to delay implementation of the EU Regulation on deforestation-free products (EUDR), Indonesian NGOs have been organising themselves to engage in its application. More than 30 Indonesian civil society organisations support the EUDR, and are urging their Government to uphold its objectives by strengthening their commitment to reduce deforestation. Drawing attention to Indonesia’s context and the likely consequences for people and forests, a consortium of Indonesian NGOs urges the Commission to assess risks as more than forests is at stake.
The EUDR establishes a ‘benchmarking’ system, designed and operated by the Commission, that will classify countries, or parts thereof, according to the level of risk (high-, standard- and low-risk) that EUDR-targeted commodities are not deforestation-free (EUDR Article 29).
Civil society analysis shows that although deforestation caused by palm oil had been declining for several years in Indonesia, it is once again on the rise. Conversion of forest to oil palm continued after the EUDR’s 31 December 2020 cut-off date – and accelerated in 2022. In 2021, 19% of palm oil plantations had been created by converting forests; in 2022, 27%!
The threat to forests is amplified by the fact that currently 2.6 million hectares of natural forest across Indonesia are encumbered by palm oil area permits and have been ‘released’ from forest area protections. Forest clearing has not yet begun, and would therefore take place well after December 2020. For these delicate natural forests, the threat of deforestation is great, especially as demand for biofuel from palm oil increases annually, both for domestic needs and for export, adding still more pressure. The provinces with the largest natural forests remaining inside areas with palm oil permits are South Papua, East Kalimantan and Papua.
Against this backdrop, physical and legal conflicts between Indigenous/local communities and plantation owners often lead to violence, intimidation, criminalisation of traditional/community activities, and forced displacement of local populations to make way for industrial plantations.
Data from the Consortium on Agrarian Reform indicate that, conflicts increased in 2022; of 212 cases of land use conflict, 99 were caused by plantation business activities, involving 377,000 hectares of land and affecting 141,000 families. Conflicts also occur frequently on ‘plasma’ plantations, a scheme that became mandatory in 2007, obligating palm oil companies to set aside 20% of their land for smallholders. The Gecko Project investigated conflicts between plasma farmers and companies and found that between 2012 - 2022, 137 companies were suspected of not setting aside enough plasma plantations.
Civil society typically experience great difficulty accessing pertinent data, which severely hinders their role in monitoring implementation and raising possible human rights violations and community conflicts before they become problematic. Lack of transparency, the inaccessibility of data relating to palm oil permits and data around the number of oil palm plantations forgiven under the Omnibus Job Creation Law, and the tendency to claim reforestation as forest are a list of problems that must be seriously considered in the benchmarking process.
Good data governance would benefit traceability surrounding Indonesia’s sustainable palm oil.
Indonesian NGOs wish to use the EUDR benchmarking process and the dialogue with producer countries to discuss such forest governance issues. “The EU should require Indonesia to establish a clean supply chain, but must also assist Indonesia in achieving this goal through mechanisms that involve civil society,” says Sayyidatiihayaa Afra (Hayaa), of NGO Satya Bumi. “We request the EU to continuously engage with Indonesian civil society organisations and farmers unions as an integral part of enhancing commodity governance. We urge the EU to consider factors beyond forest canopy – i.e., human rights violations and corruption – in the benchmarking and due diligence processes.”
Categorias: News, Forest Watch, EU Regulation on deforestation-free products