InfoSAWT, JAKARTA -In the end of 2016 there was proposal to increase the status of ISPO to be Presidential Regulation. The reason is that the implementation of ISPO could be more effective, particularly the claims so that ISPO could be accepted in the global markets.

Before the draft of Presidential Regulation ISPO is completed, the government takes every stakeholder to support to reinforce ISPO. “We who work in Coordinator Ministry are the pioneers so that ISPO acceptance could be more. But don’t criticize what we have made. We need proposals and inputs so that ISPO gets better,” Deputy in Food and Agriculture Coordination, Coordinator Ministry in Economy, MusdhalifahMachmud said.

The argument about ISPO should be no more. It should prioritize the inputs and proposal to reinforce it. She also took every side to achieve it, namely for the domestic stakeholders.

The idea was open so that ISPO as the sustainable scheme in Indonesia has its credibility in the global markets. Musdhalifah also mentioned, her side would involve many embassies in Indonesia to give inputs to the ISPO reinforcement. “Don’t make disagreement. It is part of trade competition. Don’t pauperize your own country,” she said.

Meanwhile Vice Chairman of ‘Tim KerjaPenguatan’ ISPO, DiahSuradiredja said, reinforcing ISPO is like re-pumping the ISPO itself. It is not easy to do though the progress exists. “The government is improving ISPO to increase its status to be Presidential Regulation,” Diah said in a discussion in Jakarta recently.

She also mentioned, there are three things to reinforce ISPO. The first, understand the word ‘sustainability’. It is assumed, not everybody understands the meaning of ‘sustainability’. So it is different to understand the regulation.

The second, for ISPO is assumed not to solve every available problem, many sides distrust ISPO. So it needs public consultation to get the solution. The third is about the ISPO acceptance. “The stakeholders and the markets should actually accept ISPO,” she said.

Besides the three things, Diah continued, there are three other challenges to notice in ISPO reinforcement. The first is ISPO is not easy to attach with landscape issue and the field facts. In addition, the central government always makes the spatial approach. The second is to combine the business sustainability versus biodiversity protection and the forest safety. “It is not easy to move the stakeholders from the location to the new location if the numbers of areas are thousands hectares,” she said.

The third is the synergy between the upstream to downstream sectors. “It has something to do with palm oil fund. If it is categorized as forestry plantation, will non tax budget from palm oil be from forestry sector? What about others? Do they agree with it?” she questioned.

On the other hand, many thought, ISPO could not accommodate exported palm oil product to fulfill the sustainable standards. ISPO is still about certification in the crude palm oil (CPO) level. “ISPO is only about CPO. It has nothing to do with derivative products (processed products from palm oil). We want that ISPO could regulate up to the supply chain,” General Secretary of Indonesian Palm Oil Association (IPOA), TogarSitanggang said.

The way and the standards of certification, Togar suggested, should copy the conditions in Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) in the supply chain. This is to accelerate the ISPO certification implementation process up to the supply chain. “In the process, it could be improved. The exports to European Union are not to palm oil products, but also the derivative products,” he said.

The certification of supply chain is needed because in 2015, European Union had published Rotterdam Documents saying that Europe will get the palm oil products and derivative ones which have got sustainable certificates starting 2020. This is a chance for sustainable palm oil in Indonesia.(T2)