The world’s leading certifier of sustainable palm oil has ruled a Samsung subsidiary violated its standards by failing to consult with a local Indigenous community in Sumatra, Indonesia, where it cleared forests for oil palm plantations. In a Sept. 13 decision, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) said its member PT Inecda, a subsidiary of S&G Biofuel Pte. Ltd. and a palm oil plantation under Samsung C&T, hadn’t obtained the free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) of the Talang Parit community. The decision notes that the existing rules and guides “provided clear obligations and practical guidance” to implement FPIC processes, which Inecda failed to follow. The RSPO also found Inecda in breach of its criteria requiring a mutually agreed-upon complaints and grievance mechanism. Inecda is required to respond to the RSPO within 90 days after receipt of the decision, with a plan to conduct participatory mapping with the Indigenous community. It must also revise its complaints procedures by consulting the community. Mongabay contacted Inecda and Samsung C&T for comment but hadn’t received a response at the time of publishing. According to the global coalition Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI), an RSPO meeting in December 2021 with Inecda was the first time community leaders had been included in a dialogue with the company. The current location of the Inecda plantation has seen “more than 5,000 hectares (12,400 acres) of its forest” clear-cut for palm oil,” RRI said in a statement. Indigenous lawyer Andiko of AsM Law, which represented the Talang…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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