The Tesso Nilo landscape represents a microcosm of the challenges of those faced throughout Indonesia. Our diagnostic report on the Riau Province provides the background information.
Tesso Nilo National Park is a national park in the Riau Province, Sumatra, Indonesia. The Indonesian government declared it to be a national park and key conservation area (of about 38,000 hectares) in July 2004. The area was later expanded to around 83,000 hectares in October 2009.
The area suffers from encroachment and deforestation. EoF investigated the supply chain of illegally grown FFB inside or near Tesso Nilo National Park and Bukit Batabuh Tiger Corridor, both facing rapid deforestation.
| Date | Progress |
| April 2016 | 05 April 2016:
Eyes on the Forest (EoF) released a report “No One is Safe”, which reported 19 mills that could potentially be receiving illegal oil from inside or near the national park. Out of the 19 mills, 14 mills are listed as Musim Mas suppliers.
The NGO coalition called upon major palm oil companies to conduct comprehensive monitoring to cease purchase from suppliers located in the national park. |
| All stakeholders (local communities, local governments, etc.) need to be involved in the planning for forest protection. In the long term, the plan will also need to include social and other environmental considerations.
We do not purchase any FFB directly from the area mentioned in the report. We engaged 14 companies/ mills which are mentioned in the report to seek clarification on the allegations. |
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| May 2016 | We followed up on the clarification provided by suppliers and planned for field verification in suppliers’ mill with third-party consultants. |
| June 2016 |
We had a multi-stakeholder meeting with EoF, WWF, and other Palm Oil majors in Singapore. The main points of the meeting were: third-party monitoring should be implemented to remove illegal FFBs from the supply chain, traceability efforts should lead to improved sustainability standards, and a task force, headed by the Indonesian government, EoF and WWF, would be established to address illegal farming and communities in the park. |
| July 2016 |
We had a multi-stakeholder meeting in Jakarta to follow up with the meeting in June. |
| August 2016 |
A task force involving the Indonesian government and stakeholders was formed. The Tesso Nilo task force is headed by EoF and WWF. It is a multi-stakeholder programme involving government officials, the private sector and NGOs aiming to identify a solution to the issue of deforestation in the national park. |
| November 2016 |
We attended a multi-stakeholder meeting in Jakarta, together with the officials from the central government in Indonesia. |
| February 2017 |
We have no business relationship with Gemilang Sawit Lestari since February 2017. |
| June 2018 |
08 June 2018:
Eyes on the Forest released a report “Enough is Enough”, which reported 14 suppliers (linked to known supplier groups) identified by EoF that purchased illegal FFB from Tesso Nilo from January – June 2017. Out of the 14 suppliers, two suppliers are listed as Musim Mas’ suppliers. The two suppliers are:
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