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Date Progress
May 2015 Aidenvironment and Forest Heroes reported extensive deforestation and peat clearance – including in some of the last remaining Sumatran elephants habitat, by Astra Agro Lestari (AAL), whose parent company is Jardine Matheson.

Key issues found in the Aidenvironment report were:

  • AAL planted on peat, had more than 200 hotspots in their plantation, and drained peatland in South Kalimantan
  • Encroached into elephant habitats in Aceh
  • Deforested in West Kalimantan and Central Sulawesi
  • Land dispute with communities and indigenous people in Sumatra
May – June 2015 As one of our priority suppliers, we engaged extensively with AAL on the sustainability discussion.

We had several meetings with Astra’s management to introduce sustainability commitments, which has been implemented by palm oil players and also discussed the framework that AAL should consider to address its sustainability issues.
June 2015 AAL announced an immediate moratorium on land clearing.
September 2015 AAL published its Sustainability Policy which included an NDPE statement.
March 2016 A supplier workshop with our top priority supplier groups including AAL, was held in Medan with the key focus of introducing Musim Mas’ Sustainability Policy.

At the workshop, we emphasised the importance of good agricultural sustainability practices.
July 2016 AAL is advancing with the implementation through the appointment of the Consortium of Resource Experts (CORE) to provide technical support to ensure that the Policy is implemented effectively.
June 2017 AAL published progress updates on sustainability for the period May 2016 to April 2017. The Policy implementation and priority activities have included:

  • appropriate Stakeholder Engagement to ensure a broad understanding of the Policy and its implications;
  • supply Chain Transparency and Traceability study of AAL’s crude palm oil and palm kernel supply chains;
  • development of an understanding of mill and estate level risks and priorities for supplier engagement; and
  • progress toward resolution of community issues, primarily the Jambi-based Orang Rimba indigenous people. This early phase of work primarily focuses on establishing a clear baseline understanding of AAL’s operations, allowing prioritisation of activities in the phases to follow.
July 2017 We continue to engage with AAL who confirmed that the moratorium of July 2015 for new development is still in place.

AAL has also reaffirmed its commitment to continue with its sustainability initiatives and will be publishing a three-year action plan in the last quarter of 2017.
December 2017 AAL’s enhanced Sustainability Policy has been in place since late-December 2017.

It also published a Sustainability Progress update for May – September 2017, which reports on the HCV and HCS issues being addressed. AAL also established 60 Masyarakat Peduli Api (MPA) collaborations as at June 2017.

On third-party suppliers, AAL’s traceability to mills stand at 100%. Its Orang Rimba issue is being handled and are in engagement with various stakeholders.

A three-year action plan and a new Sustainability dashboard is to be published in the first quarter of 2018.

The progress report can be viewed here.
January 2018 AAL announced the finalisation of the three-year action plan.

Traceability to mill was achieved at 100% and traceability to plantation at 73%.

They continue to implement the Orang Rimba Special Program, by working with CORE, WARSI and PT SAL in 2017 to address the issues and challenges, especially in areas of health, education and livelihood faced by 217 families consisting of five groups and 12 sub-groups.

Majlis peduli Api was further expanded to 70 villages. The outreach programme to Smallholders were carried out on a need basis, the report can be found here.

Based on the above progress, we consider the case is resolved.