Annual Report

Telapak, Bina Desa, Masyarakat Peduli

Pangan Nusantara and several
Yayasan SETARA; Three international ones including Rainforest
years of reversing the Action Network, EDF, and DTE.
current

Y ayasan SETARA is a
government organisation established
non-

as a response to concern about

ecological destruction, the exclusion of
local and indigenous communities as
well as palm farmers from natural
resource management and expansion
of large-scale palm plantations
threatening not only forests but also
the lives of local communities and
other living creatures. The decline in
forest area and cover, deprivation of
local communities’ rights by
plantation establishment,
marginalisastion of small-scale palm
farmers in palm industry chain, bring
the organisation to undertake
advocacy work against three pillars of
change: community, state and market.
In addition to the external factors
noted above, SETARA’s choice of work
is driven by the concerns of SETARA’s
activists – used to be active in Jambi-
based NGOs – with regard to massive
community and environmental
problems versus large-scale palm
plantations. The expectation of
partners such as palm farmers
(smallholders and independent
farmers) and of indigenous and local
communities to have an organisation
focusing on improving these people’s
well-being and fostering changes in
plantation policies laid a strong basis
for the creation of what is now
Yayasan SETARA, an organisation
working on both advocacy and
empowerment.
Yayasan SETARA was legally founded
in May 2007, and registered under the
Act of Notary Novita, SH, No. 1 Year
2007. It is now based in Jambi Province
and has forged a network with many
national organisations such as Sawit
Watch, Walhi, JKPP, Forest Watch, LEI,
Its operations are supported by donor
agencies such as Hivos, Misereor,
Samdhana, Stiching DOEN (for the
period 2006-2007).
Yayasan SETARA and
Sustainable Palm Oil Initiative
in Jambi Province
SETARA’s involvement in pushing and
promoting sustainable palm oil in
Jambi Province started when it was
assisting the smallholders of PT Sari
Aditya Loka/ASTRA in Merangin
Regency. At that time SETARA was
working on a research on the
government-driven partnership
schemes in the palm sector in the
province. Not only smallholders but
also independent farmers had serious
problems (read: partnership-related
conflicts with companies), particularly
with regard to low productivity leading
to low income. It was this low income
that drove the farmers to expand palm
plantation without considering the
ecological consequences.
The initiative to promote sustainable
plam oil in the province was also
driven by the exclusion of independent
farmers in RSPO’s certification chain
while they contributed to the
production of palm oil. In the province,
independent farmers controlled about
130,000 hectares out of the total
480,000 hectares of oil palm.
Project’s hotspots and sustainable
palm oil initiative
With financial support coming from
Hivos since 2009, and the cooperation
with the provincial government,
SETARA established several sites
where the initiative was implemented.
This had driven independent farmers
to become also the group promoting
sustainable palm oil.
Map of Yayasan SETARA’s work areas
Yayasan SETARA was aware that there
were weaknesses within independent
farmers, which many thought did not
allow them to participate in the
promotion, let alone in SPO
certification chain initiated by RSPO.
The most distinct weakness was that
independent farmers did not have any
groups incorporating them, absence of
good agricultural practice, and lack of
knowledge and access.1 These were
some of the serious problems they
were facing when dealing with
sustainable palm oil issues and
certification initiative. Such problems,
however, did not bring SETARA down.
1
The field assistance revealed that independent
farmers had no access to superior seeds,
fertilisers, pesticide and also capital.
Getting full support from independent
farmers, SETARA embarked on
reviving the spirit of RSPO, that is, to
promote sustainable palm oil as a
process that not only prioritized
economy but also contributed to social
affairs and respected environmental
balance; more importantly,
independent farmers’ spirit to
transform into the better, even if they
would not become potential groups to
acquire RSPO’s certificate. At least,
the spirit was planted in them.
Expanding the sustainable palm oil
spirit
It turns out that promoting sustainable
palm oil spirit cannot be done by
encouraging large companies, the
market and farmers only. The
government must be involved as it is
the government that can make
fundamental changes through its
policies. It is not of much use if
farmers and large companies are
pushed to use and adopt sustainable
methods in their plantations while the
government is allowed to keep
adopting its unsustainable practices in
its palm-related policies.2
In order to have sustainable palm oil
spirit incorporated into the (provincial)
government policies, rather than being
limited to certain groups, Yayasan
SETARA along with the provincial
Plantation Agency has attempted to
make the spirit a common ground. For
instance, on 14 April 2009, the Jambi
provincial Governor called on all
plantation actors, i.e. companies and
farmers, to adopt best and
sustnainable practice and to
implement RSPO’s P&C in their
practice.
Yayasan SETARA and social
conflicts in Jambi Province
2
 plantation4. The conversion took place
under a use permit (HGU) granted to
companies or a partnership scheme5,
or even by the local farmers under the
independent farmer scheme. SETARA’s
presence is in the position to blame
the company or the community but to
criticise the uncler spatial plan, which
does not support the allocation of
space for the local communities. Food
cropland represents the source of the
appropriation issue of food land by
One of the RSPO’s spirits currently palm plantation.
initiatited by Yayasan SETARA is to
foster palm-related conflict resolution.
Among the conflicts SETARA is trying
to resolve is the one between PT
Asiatic Persada3 and the indigenous
people of Suku Anak Dalam Batin
Sembilan in Batanghari regency. The Yayasan SETARA
resolution process began in 2009 when
boh parties started to develop a Jambi
commitment to resolving the conflict
having started since 2000 through Jln. Imam Bonjol RT X No. E1
consensus and deliberation. Kelurahan Telanai Pura
Kecamatan Telanai Pura
Yayasan SETARA has been appointed
Kota Jambi 36122
by the parties to serve as a mediator.
The conflict has, however, remained Telp/Fax : +62741-63068
unsettled after two years of the www.setarajambi.org
process. Things are going fine as the
process is stick to attempts to reach a ”For sustainable
consensus.
culture, livelihood and
Yayasan SETARA and food future”
insecurity in Jambi Province
No one denies that palm development
has caused social conflicts, and
declined both forest and cropland
quality, threatening food security and
even food sovereignty in Jambi
Province. The situation has driven
Yayasan SETARA to have a closer look
to this. There is nothing wrong with
palm, but it is a problem when it is
planted in the unsuitable land. The
situation has occurred in one of the
regencies in the province called
Tanjung Jabung Timur. Up to 2009,
around 15,000 hectares of paddy field
have been converted into palm
3
PT Asiatic Persada is a company previously
4
controlled by CDC-Pacrim and Cargill. Since Yayasan SETARA Data 2009
5
2006 it has been taken over by the Wilmar Farmers allow the company to plant palm on
Group. their land under a partnership scheme.