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Date Progress
July 2014 21 July 2014:

Greenomics report titled, “Busy Years Ahead until 2017” showed a Landsat imagery that showed Austindo Nusantara Jaya Agri (ANJ)  was clearing high carbon stock forest in the southern part of West Papua to develop new Palm Oil plantations.

Greenomics reported that ANJ started land development and cleared the forested areas on its operations in Papua, specifically Permata Putera Mandiri (PPM) and Putera Manunggal Perkasa (PMP).
February 2015 We engaged with ANJ to get clarification on claims raised by Greenomics and Mongabay on the land clearance in Papua.
March 2015

 We had a meeting with their management team after our initial engagement with ANJ. The discussion was on the high carbon stock issue in their concessions in Papua. We encouraged ANJ to consider halting land development operations until ANJ conducts an environmental due diligence based on HCS methodology, engage a consultant approved by the HCS Steering Group to conduct the HCS study, then publish the report and actively engage with the NGOs.
In the initial development/ land clearing done by ANJ in 2013, ANJ did not fulfil RSPO requirements.

Following the report from NGOs, ANJ immediately embarked on a series of actions, which were:

  • Imposing a development moratorium until RSPO New Planting Procedure (NPP) requirements were fulfilled;
  • Had HCV assessments, SIAs and EIAs done by RSPO-approved assessors and the assessment documents were verified by RSPO registered Certification Body;
  • Underwent a public notification process as per RSPO NPP rules;
  • Commenced development only after they obtained the written approval of RSPO.

ANJ has hired independent consultants to review the HCV assessments and develop a comprehensive conservation management plan.
May – August 2015
 We actively followed up with ANJ on the HCV/ HCS assessment.

We understand that ANJ has completed the HCS study and plan for future development for the HCS area. Since then, we applied “controlled purchase” on ANJ.

Our last purchase was in August 2015.
September 2016 – March 2017
 A Greenpeace report, “A Deadly Trade-off” and Foresthints article “Finger pointed at Felda for ties with controversial palm oil company” alleged that ANJ had ‘busy years ahead’ clearing intact forests in Papua, implying that little improvement has been made since 2015.

Subsidiaries involved:

– Binanga
– Sahabat Mewah Dan Makmur

Points raised:

  1. Deforestation: destruction of primary forests in Papua (PT Permata Putera Mandiri and PT Putera Manunggal Perkasa, West Papua).
  2. Exploitation: Land disputes, absence of FPIC by local communities (PT Permata Putera Mandiri and PT Putera Manunggal Perkasa, West Papua).

ANJ also does not have a public policy to avoid development on forested land or Peatland .

ANJ’s PT Permata Putera Mandiri and PT Putera Manunggal Perkasa started clearing forest in Papua in 2013/2014 before announcing this new planting on the RSPO’s website.
March 2017

 We re-engaged with ANJ, since a few NGOs are still actively in dialogue with Musim Mas on ANJ’s sustainability journey. We had a discussion on ANJ’s future (second phase) development plans for their concession in Papua.

We conveyed to ANJ the need for transparency and clarity of sustainability policy implementation to enable us to have meaningful engagement and dialogue.
ANJ shared its development plan with RSPO to ensure that ANJ is within the RSPO framework.
November 2018
 ANJ released their 2017 Sustainability Report. The full Sustainability Report can be found here.
April 2021

 We re-communicated with ANJ to ask for updates on improvements that have been carried out by ANJ so far. We held an online meeting with ANJ in April 2021 to discuss the progress of ANJ’s re-entry into Musim Mas supply chain.
The results of the discussion are as follows:

  • Between 2017 to 2021, ANJ has been reviewing their Sustainability Policies and after the RSPO P&C 2018 announced in November 2018, ANJ incorporated the elements of the RSPO P&C 2018 into their updated Sustainability Policy.
  • ANJ’s updated Sustainability Policy has also incorporated the elements of HCV and HCS considerations for any new developments which is already embedded in the RSPO P&C 2018.
  • ANJ is willing to cooperate with Musim Mas on the implementation of the Musim Mas re-entry process, and will provide necessary documents.
  • ANJ has a SWO in place which was issued by ANJ on 1stDecember 2018 and remains in place to-date. Future new developments by ANJ will comply with ANJ’s Sustainability Policy and the RSPO P&C 2018.
  • ANJ has published an updated Sustainability Policy in October 2019, including elements of NDPE commitments because of stakeholders’ compliance requirements. ANJ has also published a set of an implementation guidance to ensure clarity and transparency in the Sustainability journey which can be found here.
  • ANJ is committed to conducting HCV-HCS assessments for any future land development, and being a RSPO member, ANJ will always comply with the RSPO P&C 2018 and NPP process.
  • ANJ has released the “ANJ Group HCS Area Loss Recovery Plan 2020” in February 2020, and “ANJ Group Recovery Site – First Progress Report 2020” in October 2020. ANJ is committed to conserve and preserve with intact ecosystem of the HCS Recovery Site.

The recovery liability, plan and progress have also been reviewed by an independent international consultant.

We consider ANJ as having complied with the Stage 1 of our re-entry process. We will continue to monitor their progress.