I attended RSPO outreach meeting last Friday on RSPO Remediation and Compensation Procedures related to Land Clearance without Prior HCV assessment. Just a quick review on the meeting, RSPO remediation and compensation has two different procedures and respectively must be treated differently although there is chance both occurred in the same location. The compensation liability depends on year establishment, certification status, and membership based (with special notes for RSPO member would be penalised more than not member if found non-compliances). There are 3 main points in the RSPO Remediation and Compensation Procedures that need to be highlighted from the 13 points stated in whole procedures:
Disclosure on Non-Compliant Land Clearance
Disclosure Liability must be available by END OF JULY 2014 and template report is provided by RSPO Secretariat.
Land Use Change Analysis and Liability Assessment
LUC Analysis can be carried out by the company or independent organisation and must be available by END OF SEPTEMBER 2014. This includes providing maps (at least 30 m resolution), data, methods, and reporting template to RSPO Secretariat. Here, Daemeter could provide consultation and service to OP company.
For your information, WRI has suggested their LUC analysis with their nice layout and seems user friendly even though you need to ask password to download all data. Please do check: www.commodities.globalforestwatch.org and email GFWbusiness@wri.org. However, it said still preliminary and may need to be improved since national security issue could rise in the future. With this platform everyone can see their LUC as requested although it has been said data involved would be confidential for RSPO members.
The company who enter into compensation processes have the options of: (a) compensate the total cleared area using coefficient without conducting a Land Use Change; (b) conduct a LUC analysis relating to all individual cases of land clearance after November 1, 2005, without prior HCV assessment to see potential loss of HCV 1 – 3.
Identification of planting areas where is prohibited by P&C also should be done (ie. steep & riparian areas) as well as calculation the additional compensation liability.
Special notes for riparian zones according to RSPO remediation procedures, riparian and steep area should not be opened. However, ISPO planted riparian area > 4 years will be rehabilitated at the time replanting and thus RSPO shall follow this based on national law.
Calculating Conservation Liability maybe a little bit tricky with its standard coefficients based on the land clearance scales (Coefficient 0, 0.4, 0.7, and 1) while LUC analysis will need to enumerate and categorised land:
- Between November 2005 and November 2007
- Between November 2007 and December 31, 2009
- Between January 1, 2010 and May 9, 2014
- After May 9, 2014
The analysis shall also assess whether lands were
- Commercially cleared (by member or non-member)
- Non-commercially cleared
Development of Remediation and Compensation Plan
There are 2 options for compensation implementation (1). by numbers of hectares to be set aside or managed primarily to conserve biodiversity by the company and/or by the 3rd party, within or outside the MU (Management Unit) (2). Non-hectare basis by the company and/or by a third party for projects or programmes contributing to achieving conservation objectives, within or outside the MU (around USD 2,500 – 3,000/ha of liability as indicative figure during year I of the staged implementation).My general impression this Remediation and Compensation procedures still focused on HCV 1-3 as shown in the procedures, Point 1 – 7 related to HCV 1 – 3 are mandatory while HCV 4 -6 (Point 8 -13) are voluntary based. There is also important connection between BHCV – WG (Biodiversity High Conservation Value – Working Group) + RSPO Compensation Manager (Compensation Panel) as main collaborator in this compensation and remediation process. If you are interested for further reading, most materials including RSPO Remediation and Compensation in Bahasa Indonesia is provided on http://www.rspo.org/blog/topic/203/RSPO_Remediation_and_Compensation_Procedures.
Felicia Lasmana 