Stories from the Field
“MANGROVE SUNGAI BERSEJARAH” NATURE SCHOOL
With multiple stressors derived from local and upstream anthropogenic activities as well as interest for multiple uses and resources, coastal ecosystems are facing increasing impacts reflecting from environmental change, habitat destruction, and biodiversity loss, with these challenges having far-reaching implications for the ocean. Departing from his own passion, Khaidir Air with his own resources pioneers the “Mangrove Sungai Bersejarah” Nature School with 3 kids in Kayu Ara Permai village. The nature school aims to educate community members from a young age about the significance of mangrove ecosystems, fostering greater awareness and engagement in conservation and protection activities. To date, his class is attended by more than 20 kids every week.
SMART SPOT Drives Supplier Transformation for Sustainability in Siak and Pelalawan Landscape
More than 40 palm oil producers joined the SMART SPOT (Sustainable Palm Oil Training) event held in Pekanbaru on 20 February 2024, aimed at enhancing sustainable farming practices in the Siak and Pelalawan landscape. The event, hosted by Sinar Mas Agribusiness and Food in collaboration with Daemeter and Proforest, served as a platform to discuss strategies and best practices to enhance sustainability across the palm oil supply chain.
Daemeter Proforest Partnership welcomes the ADP delegation to SPLP
As part of continuous effort in sharing sustainable agriculture best practices through stakeholder engagement, Daemeter Proforest Partnership welcomed a delegation of the Amsterdam Declarations Partnership (ADP) representatives consisting of ambassadors and representatives from the embassies of Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Norway, United Kingdom, France, and Denmark to visit key sites of Siak Pelalawan Landscape Programme (SPLP) in Siak, Indonesia on 23 Jan 2024.
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Exposure of Multistakeholder Work supporting District Action Plan to Build Sustainable Palm Oil Plantations in Pelalawan
SPLP facilitated a multistakeholder workshop discussing every party’s work in 2023 in supporting the District Action Plan to Build Sustainable Palm Oil (DAP-SPO) Plantations in Pelalawan. Located in the Auditorium of the Pelalawan Regent's Office, this activity was attended by members of the District Implementation Team of DAP-SPO, consisting of Pelalawan government offices (Disbunnak, Bappeda, DLH, DP3AP2KB, BPN, District Office, Regent Protocol), independent smallholder organizations (Amanah Cooperative and APSKS-PS – Pelalawan Siak Palm Oil Independent Smallholder Association), bank (Bank Riau Kepri Syariah), palm oil company (PT. Musim Mas), academics (Institut Teknologi Perkebunan Pelalawan Indonesia) BPJS Ketenagakerjaan, and NGOs (EF, Jikalahari & SPLP).
Moving Towards Meaningful Partnership to Make Sustainable Palm Oil Production the Norm in Siak & Pelalawan Districts
It is a real challenge to bring all key stakeholders together to make real impact through collaborative works. First, it requires collective awareness and understanding between all stakeholders involved about the importance of the partnership and how to make it work to achieve shared goals. Second, it requires willingness to see different interests and together the stakeholders find common solutions through open conversations until understanding is achieved and common series of solutions agreed. This long journey will take commitment, time, patience, financial resources, and the collective leadership of key stakeholders to build an impactful partnership.
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farmer capacity building - from concept to action
The philosophy behind the Farmer Field School is to create a learning environment based on sharing of experience, observation in the field, analysis of the observations and discussion on actions to improve the conditions of the oil palm and invigorate its growth. It also emphasises the importance of farmer empowerment, local capacity building and farmer collaboration.
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Capacity building and engaging smallholder farmers on Nature Positive Farming
The Nature Positive Farming programme is an early engagement programme for companies and landscape initiatives to support non-certified oil palm smallholder farmers to protect High Conservation Values and natural ecosystems as part of responsible sourcing commitments. In this Stories from the Field we reflect on the lessons from the first pilot in Siak and Pelalawan, activities around the planning and preparation, training and dialogue, and how the pilot is being used to further develop the Village Support Programme.
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Forest conservation and rehabilitation at the village level: case studies from 4 different interventions of village facilitators in Siak and Pelalawan
Two years after the SPLP village facilitators made their way to the villages, the first changes related to conservation and protection of natural areas are already visible. Communities, leaders, village governments, and individuals have been encouraged to start or revive initiatives for conservation and rehabilitation. The village facilitators were able to provide support to communities where needed, such as supporting the improvement of village development plans, providing support on regulations, collecting data, networking and linking to other organisations.
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Improving livelihoods of oil palm smallholder farmers through data collection and business registration
More than half of the palm oil produced in Siak and Pelalawan districts originates from smallholder farmers. Many farm businesses are informal: they do not have official land ownership or business registration. Their plantations are often located in marginal lands or in designated forest areas. Consequently, these farmers have limited access to financial support or extension services, creating income instability and low yields per hectare.
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Improving sustainable production practices on peatlands
With support from the Siak Pelalawan Landscape Programme, the Dayun village community in Siak district has developed a demonstration plot for sustainable agriculture on peatland. The farmers who manage the demonstration plot plan to use it as farmer field school in the village.
Activities carried out so far include land preparation, cultivation, nursery, planting and canal blocking.
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How GAR develops the capacity of its suppliers in Siak and Pelalawan to improve sustainability in the region’s palm oil development: adaptive management through the global pandemic
Golden Agri Resources (GAR) is a supporter of the Siak Pelalawan Landscape Programme (SPLP) in Indonesia, and is able to use its engagement with suppliers in the landscape to cascade its global NDPE commitments through a series of assessments, training and coaching programmes.
This involves a first period of intensive engagement with the top management of each of the supplying companies to explain the needs and benefits, and GAR has been doing this in Indonesia since 2015. In this story GAR outlines its process of supplier engagement, and how it has had to practice adaptive management to continue its work remotely throughout the global Covid-19 pandemic.
Mills Engagement: Webinar and Training on Sustainable Palm Oil Production
Members of the Siak Pelalawan Landscape Programme (SPLP) Coalition believe sustainability issues can be solved by companies, governments, civil society, and communities working together. Therefore, engaging with each actor in palm oil production landscapes is important to help maximise impacts.
To do so, SPLP conducted webinars to introduce palm oil mills in the two districts to government-led programmes Siak Hijau, District Action Plan for Sustainable Palm Oil (DAP-KSB) in Pelalawan and introduced SPLP as a private sector initiative. The webinars aimed to be the first socialisation about support that SPLP can provide to the palm oil mills to improve operations to achieve deforestation-free palm oil production.
Village Profile: the basis for village development planning
The SPLP supports the village community to develop a village profile. A village profile is a document that provides comprehensive information on social, economic, and environmental conditions of the village. Developing a village profile is a participatory approach that enables village governments to make profound decisions for village development.