13/03/2013 (Jakarta Globe) - The Indonesian government is ready to revoke the licenses of palm oil companies in the country if they do not have an Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil certificate by 2014, a high-level official at the Agriculture Ministry said on Thursday.

“Because it is a mandatory, there will be sanctions. We could revoke the licenses of palm oil companies that do not have the ISPO,” said Gamal Nasir, director general for plantations at the ministry.

The Indonesian government introduced the ISPO several years ago, setting a standard to ensure that palm oil producers will not add to deforestation and destruction of carbon-rich peat lands because of their activities.

The certification is an effort by the government to set up its own environmental standard as the country is now the biggest crude palm oil producer in the world.

Currently, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, consisting of palm oil stakeholders — including producers, retailers or consumers, and NGOs — has the world’s most widely recognized certification standard for sustainable palm oil, certified sustainable palm oil.

Certain ISPO standards are less strict than CSPO standards, and the cost of certification per hectare is lower. The ISPO was created after the Indonesian Palm Oil Association (Gapki) exited the RSPO in 2011, after a series of conflicts linked to environmental standards.

Gamal said the government will review the cases one by one and companies may be charged with different sanctions, depending on the scale of the regulation breach.

On Thursday, Indonesian Agriculture Minister Suswono symbolically handed over certificates of ISPO to 10 palm oil companies that recently secured such certification.

They include Musim Mas, which operates a plantation area in Pangkalan Lesung and Batang Kulim in Riau province; Sari Aditya Loka 1, for its plantation in Jambi province; Swadaya Andika for its South Kalimantan plantation; Laguna Mandiri for its South Kalimantan plantation and Ivo Mas Tunggal for its operation in Riau.

Other companies that received the ISPO certification are Hindoli, which operates a plantation in South Sumatra; Gunung Sejahtera Dua Indah, for its plantation in Central Kalimantan; Gunung Sejahtera Ibu Pertiwi for the plantation in Central Kalimantan and Perkebunan Nusantara V for plantation in Riau.