Tell the RSPO to censure criminal behavior by kicking GAR off its board.

GAR is linked to nearly six years’ worth of human rights violations, environmental degradation, and disregard for communities’ land rights in its subsidiary operations in Liberia. Now two of its executives have been arrested on bribery charges. But so far, RSPO hasn’t done enough to hold this destructive corporation accountable -- perhaps because GAR is on its board. We need your help to stop this conflict of interest and hold GAR accountable for its destruction.

Mr.

Biswaranjan

Sen

Mr.

Paul

Wolvekamp

Mr.

Johan

Verburg

Ms.

Anne

Rosenbarger

Ms.

Elizabeth

Clarke

Mr.

Bakhtiar

Talhah

Mr.

Carl

Bek-Nielsen

United Plantations

Dear Mr. Sen, and members of the Board of Governors,

I understand that the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil is the world’s leading sustainable certification body for palm oil and palm oil supply chains. I also understand that the crisis of tropical deforestation, biodiversity loss, and land grabbing is only getting worse, not better – and that the palm oil industry plays a very significant role in driving these problems. The RSPO is constantly striving to improve its Principles and Criteria to address the ongoing challenges in the industry, and I applaud your efforts to do better.

But I am concerned that the composition of your Board of Governors is problematic, given events that have recently come to light, and others that have been in play for some time. Golden-Agri Resources, which maintains a seat on your board, has been recently involved in a series of complaints and scandals that, in my view, undermine its competency to act in a responsible manner on the RSPO board.

Earlier this month Indonesia’s Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) arrested seven people for bribery and corruption, including executives from Sinar Mas Agro Resources and PT Binasawit Abadi Pratama – two palm oil companies that are subsidiaries of GAR. The Vice President of Sinar Mas and several members of the Central Kalimantan parliament are named as suspects in the case. Reports indicate that the arrests were made due to Sinar Mas’s attempt to pay off politicians to avoid an investigation into the pollution of a lake in Central Kalimantan due to gross contamination from palm oil waste and pesticides from the surrounding plantations and mills.

These arrests come after years of environmental destruction, human rights violations, and land grabbing by GAR. Among these cases is GAR’s investee company GVL. A long litany of complaints about GVL were affirmed by the RSPO Complaints Panel in a February 2018 decision, which was then appealed by GVL. When GVL lost its appeal, the company pulled out of the RSPO – though it has since been re-admitted. Shortly after, GVL was asked to step down from its apparent seat on the High Carbon Stock Assessment Group.

Another complaint alleges that GAR is in violation of Indonesian laws that prohibit companies and corporate groups from holding more than 100,000 hectares of land. GAR publicly admits to holding more than four times that amount. Compliance with the law is a core principle of the RSPO standard – but the RSPO Complaints Panel has avoided making a ruling on this matter for more than three years.

GAR has also delayed providing promised smallholdings to local Dayak and Malay communities from whom it acquired lands in 2007-2009, despite being required to do so by the RSPO Complaints Panel more than three years ago.

NGOs have also called on the RSPO to investigate ‘shadow companies’ owned by Sinar Mas but which GAR has not declared are under its control. This follows a similar disclosure, earlier this year, that GAR’s sister company, the pulpwood giant Asian Pulp and Paper, was hiding Sinar Mas group’s ownership of several timber estates which were caught deforesting.

At a time when the RSPO is seeking to strengthen its effectiveness and its global reputation by improving its principles and criteria, why permit the continued presence on your board of a company facing such clear challenges in meeting both legal and sustainability standards? The company’s presence on your board – and indeed, within the membership of the certification body – casts a shadow on your institution and furthers doubts that many have about the ability of the RSPO to seriously fulfill its stated mission. For these reasons, I urge that GAR’s representative should be suspended from the RSPO Board of Governors, effective immediately.

Sincerely,

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