InfoSAWIT, JAKARTA - Koperasi Produsen Perkebunan (Kopbun) Persada Engkersik Lestari, a cooperation that its members are independent smallholders in Village of Engkersik, Sub district of Sekadau, West Kalimantan Province, on Monday, 31 July 2023 got ISPO (Indonesia Sustainable Palm Oil) certificate in Jakarta.
It was symbolically handed over by Deputy in Food and Agribusiness Coordinator, Coordinator Ministry in Economy, Musdhalifah Machmud. There were Regent of Sekadau, Aron and General Secretary of Serikat Petani Kelapa Sawit (SPKS) Mansuetus Darto that witnessed it.
Kopbun Persada Engkersik Lestari does not stand alone but is part of SPKS that helped the cooperation to realize no deforestation, peat, and exploitation (NDPE) commitment but protect the forest. The collaboration with SPKS showed its partisanship about sustainability principles in palm oil production which has become the main sector in Indonesia.
The cooperation and its members commit to implement sustainable palm oil plantation practices with the standard, principles, and criteria as regulated in Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) which is an organization that focuses on developing sustainable palm oil. RSPO certificate would become the important thing for Kopbun Persada Engkersik Lestari to get. Besides, the cooperation also obeys palm oil policies in national scale, and showed their seriousness to encourage sustainable practices in this country.
Having more than 300 members, Kopbun Persada Engkersik Lestari has gone in a very long journey to get positive images in palm oil industries. In 2022, 156 members fulfilled their targets to get RSPO certificates. This meant their seriousness to realize sustainable and environmental practices. But by getting ISPO certificate, the cooperation is officially acknowledged to run and implement sustainable and environmental production.
Kopbun Persada Engkersik Lestari and the collaboration with SPKS as the representative of independent smallholders, highly contribute to encourage more sustainable practices in social and environmental ways. These deliver good sample for other to do the same things.
NDPE commitment but protect the forests proved that palm oil plantations could grow and develop by noticing environmental conservation and people’s welfare around. (T2)
