29 November 2012
SEI Report Identifies Water-Related Grievances from Palm Oil Production in Indonesia
story highlights

The Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) report analyzes these grievances in the context of the EU's Renewable Energy Directive's sustainability criteria for biofuel production, and finds that they are not adequately responded to at the local level due to a lack of monitoring data and regulatory gaps, and recommends, inter alia, improving integrated catchment and river basin management at the local level, and including mandatory criteria for integrated river basin water resource management in renewable energy policies at the European level.

28 November 2012: The Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) has releaed a new report, titled “Competing Water Claims in Biofuel Feedstock Operations in Central Kalimantan– Community Grievances and Pathways to Improved Governance of Oil Palm Concessions.” The report analyzes the water-related impacts and risks from biofuel feedstock operations in Indonesia’s Central Kalimantan Province, and proposes changes to local and European regulations.

The report highlights that the sustainability criteria for biofuel production of the European Union’s Renewable Energy Directive (RED), which has set a mandatory target of 10% renewable energy in the transport sector, do not include socio-economic criteria on the impact on local livelihoods, such as water-related impacts. Based on research in the Central Kalimantan Province and the Mentaya and Seruyan River Basins of Indonesian Borneo, where the report finds several community grievances that require immediate attention in this regard, including: land clearing, erosion and run-off from palm oil plantations; release of toxins into the water; palm oil mill effluent (POME) and other palm oil waste dumped or released into rivers and streams; floods linked to deforestation; and drying of community land adjacent to plantations.

The report argues that current governance mechanisms are unable to respond adequately to these grievances, which it partly attributes to the lack of quantitative monitoring data and the resulting inability to attribute responsibility for water-related impacts. The report further identifies regulatory gaps, uncertainty over land rights, and weak implementation of voluntary stakeholder-negotiated sustainability standards as factors inhibiting adequate action.

The report also provides several recommendations for local and EU policy makers, European market actors and coordinators of voluntary market standards, respectively, to, inter alia: address the gaps in public regulation to improve integrated catchment and river basin management; include mandatory criteria for integrated river basin water resource management in renewable energy policies; embed sustainability standards in corporate social responsibility policies; and develop more robust indicators for auditing voluntary standards. [SEI Press Release] [Publication: Competing Water Claims in Biofuel Feedstock Operations in Central Kalimantan. Community Grievances and Pathways to Improved Governance of Oil Palm Concessions]

related posts