Sinar Mas Agribusiness and Food is one of the largest integrated palm-based consumer companies in Indonesia committed to sustainable palm oil production. Its palm oil plantations cover more than 488,000 hectares (including smallholders). We are a leading seed-to-shelf agribusiness—from growing oil palms with farmers to producing food for the present and future.
Our primary activities are cultivating and harvesting oil palms, processing fresh fruit bunches (FFBs) into crude palm oil (CPO) and palm kernel, and refining CPO into value-added products such as cooking oil, margarine, shortening, specialty fat, biodiesel, as well as merchandising palm products throughout the world.
Operating within Golden Agri-Resources (GAR), the Sinar Mas Agribusiness and Food brand includes the oleochemical business, Sinarmas Oleochemical (PT SOCI MAS) and the SMART Research Institute (SMARTRI) in its operations.
The SMART Research Institute (SMARTRI) in Libo, Riau is our flagship research facility with around 80 researchers and scientists focusing on improving practices in agronomy, breeding, crop protection all of which contribute to sustainable palm oil production. SMARTRI was ISO 9001:2008 certified for its quality management system in 2003 and accredited with ISO 17025 for its analytical laboratory in 2005.
Using technology and R&D to improve yields and agricultural practices is one of the core tenets of our sustainability policy. We launched our Yield Improvement Policy in 2012 which has now been integrated into the GAR Social and Environmental Policy (GSEP). By improving productivity and yields, we can produce more palm oil using less land, relieving pressure on forests while improving livelihoods.
CIRAD, the Agricultural Research Centre for International Development, is a French agricultural research centre working for development in developing countries and the French overseas regions. It works throughout the tropics and subtropics, and most of its research is conducted in partnership.
It has a mandate to contribute to sustainable development in these regions through research, trials, training and the dissemination of scientific and technical information. Its expertise spans the life sciences, human sciences and engineering sciences and their application to agriculture, food, natural resource management and society.
CIRAD has three research departments: Biological Systems (BIOS), Performance of Tropical Production and Processing Systems (PERSYST), and Environments and Societies (ES). It is split into 59 units: 32 internal research units (UPRs), four service units (USs), 20 joint research units (UMRs) and three international research units (URPs).
It employs 1.825 people, including 856 senior scientific staff members, and has an annual operating budget of 203 million euros.
Indonesia is very rich in terms of terrestrial and marine biodiversity, yet so many Indonesians live in poverty, our cities are some of the most polluted in the world, year after year our forest go up in flames, and in the monsoon seasons so many people must suffer the woes of floods and landslides, often fatal.
WWF-Indonesia’s ultimate goal is to stop and eventually reverse environmental degradation and to build a future where people live in harmony with nature.
Our mission is to conserve biodiversity and reducing human impact through (1) Promoting strong conservation ethics, awareness and actions in Indonesia society; (2) Facilitating multi-stakeholders efforts to preserve biodiversity & ecological processes on ecoregional scale; (3) Advocating for policies, law and law enforcement that support conservation; (4) Promoting conservation for the well-being of people, through sustainable use of natural resources.
In WWF-Indonesia we prioritize our work in important centers of biodiversity known as the Global 200 ecoregions. We are currently running conservation programs in 23 sites in 16 provinces throughout Indonesia in a number of marine, freshwater and forest ecosystems. We strive to save the diversity of species by promoting sustainable conservation that can give continued social and economic benefits to local communities. We also work with various stakeholders to restore damaged ecosystems and mitigate various threats such as climate change and toxic chemicals.
Some vital preconditions need to be in place for effective conservation to happen. These include empowered citizens, responsible governments and businesses and strong conservation policies. Unfortunately currently Indonesia is lagging behind on all three fronts. To this end, WWF-Indonesia works to promote (1) Strong conservation policies at all levels, from the local, regional, national and international government levels, through our advocacy work. We do not stop with governments, since in today’s world corporations can impact conservation negatively if they are not guided by strong corporate environment and social policies. Thus, through corporate engagement we encourage companies to strengthen their conservation policies and practices; (2) Community empowerment, whereby local citizens are able to protect natural resources, be actively involved in determining how resources are managed, and protect their rights to receive benefits from sustainable use of these resources, is crucial for conservation in Indonesia to succeed. Our community organizers work to creatively face the challenges of poverty. Nationally, we run public campaigns, designed to help citizens understand issues related to conservation and governance, and provide them a way to participate in making the change for a better world.
We strongly believe in collaboration and dialogue. Every stakeholder has something positive to bring to the conservation table. We conduct ongoing conservation education programs to encourage more and more people to join in the conservation effort.