Indonesian Palm Oil Giant partially cleared on green claim

A recent audit on PT SMART Tbk, revealed the Indonesian palm oil gian had not destroyed primary forest but had planted on carbon-rich deep peatlands. This partially clears the company of accusations by Greenpeace. SMART was reported to have said that the independent report showed a campaign by Greenpeace was exaggerated or wrong, but the audit found that the planting on deep peatlands, which trap greenhouse gases, contravenes Indonesian and SMART’s own regulations.

In a series of reports released last year, Greenpeace stated that SMART was clearing peatland and high conservation value forests, which shelter endangered species and trap vast amounts of climate-warming greenhouse gases.

Big palm oil buyers Unilever and Nestle dropped SMART as a supplier following the Greenpeace reports, while industry giant Cargill had threatened to do the same if the accusations proved correct in the audit SMART commissioned in response to the Greenpeace claims.

The auditors, Control Union Certification and BSI Group, were paid for by SMART, after being approved by the Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), an industry body of planters, consumers and green groups. The audit covered only 40 per cent of SMART’s total planted area of 430,000 hectares, not including the eastern Papua province. It used satellite images, land surveys, soil analysis and interviews with officials for the findings.