• The decision is a big win for the Talang Parit community, which has fought the company’s violation of its customary land rights for over 25 years.

• This is the first time the RSPO has used evidence from a community’s own monitoring of palm oil’s social and environmental impacts to resolve a complaint.

• Indonesia supplies over half of the global palm oil market, increasing production by 400 percent over the past two decades and clearing millions of hectares of natural forests for plantations.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (27 September 2024)—The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) has found PT Inecda Plantations, a subsidiary of Korea-based Samsung C&T Group and a certified member, in breach of its sustainability standards on the Indigenous Talang Parit territory in Indonesia.

The RSPO implements global standards for sustainable palm oil. Its decision, issued September 9, recognized that PT Inecda had violated its principles for responsible plantation management, protection of nature, and meeting local community obligations. It also found that the company has operated on the Talang Parit land for over two decades without obtaining the community’s consent.

Indonesia supplies over half of the global palm oil market and has increased its production by 400 percent over the past two decades by clearing millions of hectares of natural forests to make way for plantations. Given its reliance on the destruction of forests and peatlands, palm oil production is a major contributor to global warming and climate change.

This decision is a direct result of an innovative process used by the Talang Parit to develop the complaint using the community’s own extensive monitoring of the plantation’s human and environmental rights impacts.

The Talang Parit are part of Indonesia’s broader Talang Mamak Indigenous community and have lived in Sumatra for generations. A once-thriving ecosystem with vibrant lakes, their traditional land has suffered destruction since excavators from PT Inecda Plantation began clear-cutting more than 5,000 hectares (12,400 acres) of forest for palm oil. The land conversion has also devastated the community’s ability to sustain its cultural and spiritual traditions which are inextricably linked to nature.

Andiko, S.H, M.H, an Indigenous lawyer and director of AsM Law, which represents the community, said, “The conflict between the Talang Parit and Inecda has been going on since the early ’90s. The community pursued a process [for resolution] for decades, but there seemed no way out. With AsM’s support, the community chose the path of resolution through RSPO and has now found a bright spot.”

AsM filed the complaint on the community’s behalf in 2020, alleging that PT Inecda had operated on the Talang Parit community’s lands without the community’s free, prior, and informed consent, and failed to provide it with land for plasma plantations (a scheme where communities are awarded a portion of land in exchange for giving up control of their territories).

The RSPO conducted an independent investigation to substantiate the allegations. In December 2021, its representatives accompanied PT Inecda Plantations’ general manager to meet with community leaders.

It was the company’s first direct dialogue with the community since it began its operations on its land in 1984.

Following the visit, the RSPO requested a first-ever social dialogue between PT Inecda and the community to resolve their conflict. However, the company refused to reach a bilateral settlement. As next steps, the RSPO now requires PT Inecda to conduct a participatory mapping exercise with the Talang Parit’s free, prior, and informed consent, allocate its plasma plantations, and create a grievance mechanism to resolve community complaints.

Pak Batin Irasan, the Talang Parit’s spiritual leader, has led the struggle against PT Inecda for years. He said the RSPO’s decision was a welcome turn in a long fight that had often seemed never-ending.

“We are grateful for this decision by the RSPO, and see it as an opening for future settlement steps with the company,” Batin Irasan said in an online meeting with AsM.

An opportunity to correct past injustices

The Talang Parit’s legal struggle was supported by the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI), a global coalition that promotes the rights of Indigenous and local communities. In addition to funding legal advocacy and paralegal trainings for community members to file the complaint, RRI conducted an investment chain analysis of plantations on customary lands and developed tools to empower communities to monitor and report on the social and environmental impacts of supply chains and investments on their lands. It was by using these tools that the Talang Parit community documented PT Inecda’s impacts on its territory for the RSPO complaint.

Dita, a member of the Talang Parit youth group, Taji, which participated in the complaint process, is hopeful that the decision will lead to positive results. “We, the youth of Talang Parit who have been involved in this process, are proud of this decision. The Taji youth will continue to be involved in any processes coming from this decision in the future,” she said.

RRI also sent an open letter last year to Samsung C&T’s president, Koh Jung-Suk, to draw attention to the community’s plight. PT Inecda was the first Korean palm oil company to receive an international RSPO certification, and committed in a 2019 press release to “creating a harmonious organizational culture with the local community.”

Bryson Ogden, RRI’s Director of Rights and Livelihoods said, “We are pleased to receive this first-of-its-kind decision from the RSPO in favor of the Talang Parit. We are anxious to see if the decision leads to the recognition of land rights, economic opportunity, and compensation for the community. If companies at all levels in the supply chain are serious about implementing their public commitments on sustainability, they must directly engage with Indigenous and local communities. We encourage PT Inecda to follow the steps recommended by the Complaints Panel rather than continuing to delay through appeals.”

Ogden also encouraged other communities to use the lessons and precedents from this case to advance their own engagement with companies to secure their land rights and well-being.

“Overcoming these historical conflicts and recognizing the tenure rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities are critical to keeping tropical forests standing.”

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Press Contact: Madiha Waris / [email protected]

About the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI)

RRI is a global coalition of over 200 organizations dedicated to advancing the forest, land, and resource rights of Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendant Peoples, local communities, and the women within these groups. RRI leverages the power of its global coalition to amplify the voices of local peoples and proactively engage governments, multilateral institutions, and private sector actors to adopt institutional and market reforms that support the realization of rights. Its members capitalize on each other’s strengths, expertise, and geographic reach to achieve solutions more effectively and efficiently. RRI is coordinated by the Rights and Resources Group, a non-profit organization based in Washington, DC.