Korindo Group
Korindo Group is a privately-owned company, headquartered in Jakarta, Indonesia who has businesses in plywood, newsprint papers, timber and oil palm plantations industries.
Korindo Group has a corporate website which can be found here.
1) Mighty Earth report titled, “Burning Paradise” (01 September 2016)
2) Rainforest Action Network report titled, “Perilous – Korindo, Land Grabbing & Banks” (13 November 2018)
(1) In the report, “Burning Paradise – The Oil Palm Practices of Korindo in Papua and North Maluku,” the three top findings of Korindo’s oil palm practices are:
- Deforestation: the company cleared the tropical lowland forest and made little effort to identify and preserve conservation areas within its concession;
- Evidence of the use of fire for land clearance;
- Disregarded local community rights to provide or withhold FPIC for new development.
(2) The report details local communities and NGOs’ complaints about Korindo’s logging and oil palm operations in North Maluku Province, through its subsidiary PT Gelora Mandiri Membangun (PT GMM). Analysis of the broader Korindo group also raises numerous red flags regarding its corporate governance standards.
We have engaged extensively with Korindo Group since the first quarter of 2016 through its trader.
March – May 2016
We informed Korindo, via its trader about the hotspots found in Korindo’s concessions which occurred in 2015. We had a dialogue with Korindo about our NDPE policy and sought Korindo’s views on sustainability.
June – August 2016
We had a meeting with Korindo’s Director to understand the context of the fire incidents, the preventive action, its plans and a commitment to stop development in Papua. We encouraged Korindo to develop a comprehensive NDPE Policy and communicate its commitment publicly. While preparing the policy and undergoing consultation with the stakeholders, Korindo should stop work.
We adopted “controlled purchase” as part of our process of engagement.
September – December 2016
We followed up with Korindo on its milestones and action plan, upon the announcement of the moratorium of Tunas Sawa Erma. We also discussed the process of extending the sustainability commitment to the other subsidiaries in the group.
Our last purchase date was in end 2016.
February 2017
We sought verification from Korindo on the recent report from stakeholders, who indicated that Korindo did not follow its moratorium on new land development for all its Palm Oil operations. We will continue to engage, encourage, monitor, and follow up on the discussion with Korindo to assess progress towards the implementation of its sustainability policy.
We have no business relationship with Korindo. Nonetheless, we will continue our dialogue with Korindo to assess for any follow-up and progress on the implementation of Korindo’s sustainability policy.
May 2017
According to the non-profit group, Mighty, Korindo is officially being investigated by the Forestry Stewardship Council.
April 2018
We met up with a management personnel from Korindo to discuss the possible ways forward to implement sustainable practices on the ground.
August 2016
Korindo announced a moratorium on development for Tunas Sawa Erma (a subsidiary company of Korindo) on 1 August 2016. It will implement the moratorium in three concessions – Tunas Sawa Erma A, Tunas Sawa Erma B and Tunas Sawa Erma E for a three-month period.
November 2016
Korindo published their Sustainability Policy in October 2016. It extended the moratorium to Tunas Sawa Erma, Berkat Cipta Abadi, Dongin Prabhawa on 10 November 2016, Papua Agro Lestari and Gelora Mandiri Membangun on 1 December 2016.
December 2016
Korindo published the summary of HCV and HCS assessments for all six concessions.
