Tunas Sawa Erma Group Implements Continued Practices

Illustration (Photo: Doc. ANTARA)

JAKARTA - PT Tunas Sawa Erma (TSE) continues to strive to become a pioneer of oil palm plantation companies in Papua in implementing sustainability practices in managing its plantations and factories.

TSE adopted NDE Policy in 2019, ESG Charter 2020, and policy transformation and implementation in 2021 in both South Papua and North Maluku.

The Hylobates Awara Foundation (Yahywa) as a companion to the TSE Group in carrying out the transformation process through the implementation of its NDE commitment since 2022, continues to work hand in hand with the TSE group so that the transformation process can fully answer all doubts from the parties.

Yahywa provides assistance and provides the right assessment instrument to measure the level of TSE Group's achievement in implementing all NDE, Grievance Mechanism, Traceability Tracker and Self Assessment Platform policies.

The TSE Group has completed the Self Assessment process based on indicators of No Deforestation, No Peak and No Expolitation.

In order to fulfill the objectivity element, the Self Assessment is then independently verified by the Academician, consisting of 3 Professors from IPB with scientific capacity in their respective fields which includes NDPE requirement.

In addition, the TSE Group also conducts Liability Assessment and Recovery Plan as a follow-up to the results of independent verification that has been formulated in the action plan.

The final result of the Liability Assessment then became the basis for the company to develop the Recovery Plan.

In order to carry the standard objectiveity, the Liability Assessment is verified by the Professor of Remote Sensing IPB so that studies continue to run in the scientific realm and not just an ordinary scientific study. The Recovery Plan is also tested and intensively verified by IPB Academics competent in this regard.

Currently, based on the Recovery Plan which has been independently created and verified, the TSE Group has launched to create a community conservation and social program that has an Additionality Value and is not a regular activity such as CSR or environmental management which is generally carried out based on AMDAL recommendations.

The implementation of the Recovery Plan is beyond. This means that the TSE Group is trying hard to maximize contributions, compensation and remediation so that it is able to provide significant changes to the increase in biodiversity, river sediment restoration, community empowering, and social welfare for communities around the company.

TSE Group Director, Mr. Wicklief F. Leuufna or familiarly called Mr. Luwy said that his party is very open to receiving input from parties who care about the spirit of change they are running.

"In principle, TSE is very strong in carrying out its program and making changes, including opening communication with many parties, including local NGOs, local governments, and parties who are both committed to increasing the sustainability of the palm oil industry," he said.

The man who is familiarly called Luwy added that the NGO Forum activity was held at the Yogyakarta Tentrem Hotel from May 13 to 14, 2024.

In the important forum, buyers were present, including Sinarmas GAR, WILMAR, LDC, and Musim Mas. NGO institutions such as WRI, WWF, MONGABAY, and YKAN were also present.

"They give a lot of appreciation and input for what TSE Group has done in implementing and executing NDE policies and recovery program plans both inside and outside of concessions," concluded Luwy.

Through the NGO, buyers and NGOs provide constructive feedback to the TSE Group.

One of them is the importance of the TSE Group to be more daring to build communication and sharing information through success stories to more broad parties, including end buyers.

So that they can participate in accessing the changes and transformations that have been carried out by the TSE Group.

The NGO Forum is an activity initiated by the Hylobates Awara Foundation (YAHYWA) which is a partner and companion of the TSE Group in the implementation of NDE, Liability Assessment, the preparation of a Recovery Plan and technical advisors related to sustainability practices in managing oil palm plantations.

Finally, TSE Group and Yahywa have high hopes of becoming valuable milestones for companies, as well as being a benchmark that oil palm management in Indonesia is carried out by taking serious and consistent sustainability practices into account.