Sustainable, climate-friendly palm oil production and procurement
Global demand for palm oil has risen in recent years. Producer countries like Indonesia and Thailand have responded by expanding oil palm cultivation—which frequently leads to ecological problems and social injustices. The project worked with stakeholders in partner countries to encourage the take-up of sustainable and climate-friendly cultivation practices among smallholders, to increase yield per unit area and achieve certification to international standards. Educational programmes benefited smallholders, oil mills and the government in both countries. In Indonesia, stakeholders in one pilot region developed a land usage plan with protected areas as well as areas suitable for oil palm cultivation. To boost demand for products using certified palm oil in Germany, the project also developed procurement guidelines for pilot municipalities. The project also targeted consumer platforms in order to raise awareness about sustainably produced palm oil. /
- Countries
- Indonesia, Thailand
- IKI funding
- 5,200,000.00 €
- Duration
- 09/2018 till 12/2022
- Status
- completed
- Implementing organisation
- Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH
- Political Partner
-
- Ministry of Agriculture - Indonesia
- Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives - Thailand
- Implementing Partner
-
- Deutsche Umwelthilfe e.V.
- Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, Department of Agriculture - Thailand
State of implementation/results
- Project completed.
- Indonesia:
- Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Planning welcome training modules developed by the project. They serve to prepare smallholder farmers for certification under the Indonesian ISPO and the international RSPO sustainability standard.
- - Four cooperatives supported by the project (590 farmers*) achieved RSPO and ISPO certification by July 2022.
- On 18 May 2022, representatives of the government of East Kutai and relevant stakeholders - including five oil palm plantation corporations and two banks - signed a declaration committing to cooperate in the implementation of the District Sustainable Plantation Plan 2021-2030 in achieving 12 outcome indicators. One of these indicators relates to the protection of 48,900 ha of high conservation value areas in the district's planning zone. The District Manager of East Kutai confirmed the region's participation in a pilot phase of The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) regarding a landscape approach.
- The Second Business Forum on "Transforming the Sustainable Palm Oil Market" in Thailand was organized on 31 May 2022 with a focus on raising awareness of the palm oil industry on the "shared responsibility" approach. Over 379 people attended the event in presence and digitally.
- Using the project's own TOPSA training program, smallholder plantation owners were trained in ecologically sustainable and climate-friendly oil palm cultivation. By August 2022, around 22,000 participants have been registered in the five training modules. 47% of the participants are female. In addition, using the i-PALM app developed for palm oil growers, they learn how to increase yields, conserve resources and save greenhouse gases. A local company using the TOPSA program signed a memorandum of understanding in June 2022 to support sustainable and climate-friendly palm oil production in Thailand.
- The establishment of 15 demonstration plots in three provinces by the Department of Agriculture (DoA) has seen an increase in crop yields (from 17.92 to 18.88 t/ha/year) and a reduction in production costs (from 39,000 to 34,000 THB/ha/year). This leads to higher income for smallholder farmers.
- DUH was able to win a total of four municipalities that set the goal of exclusively considering sustainably certified palm oil in public procurement. These include Hanover, the district office of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg (Berlin) as well as the catering office of the German Armed Forces and the community Roßtal.
- Citizens have been informed about the sustainable consumption of palm oil products since September 2020.
- At the end of April 2021, DUH published a guide on public procurement of sustainable palm oil.
- DUH also conducted a market survey on sustainable palm oil in washing, care and cleaning products and presented and discussed the first results at a DUH market dialogue on 1 September 2021.
- Following the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil in Animal Feed in November 2020, DUH published an Animal Feed Radar at the end of July 2021, as well as in January 2022 and July 2022, to encourage companies to source palm oil and soy in a certified way.
Latest Update:
12/2024
Project relations
Legend:
The link has been copied to the clipboard
