Jambi, 25th October 2016 – Asian Agri as one of national palm oil companies is committed to developing the potential of communities through knowledge sharing and the use of land to plant oil palm trees. The first formal program called Sekolah Sawit Lestari (SSL) was inaugurated today at SMA 11, Terusan Village, Maro Sebo Ilir District, Batanghari Regency, Jambi.
The SSL program is designed to support the teaching and learning process for elementary, junior and senior high schools by providing them with live oil palms on idle land in the schools’ compound. By providing schools with live oil palms, students have a means to incorporate local content into their extracurricular activity while learning about sustainable practices in the cultivation of oil palms.
Head of Sustainability Operations & CSR Asian Agri, Welly Pardede, explained, “The program aims to broaden students’ horizons and increase knowledge about the palm oil industry and management including basic knowledge of plantation, implementation of best management practices which is guided by Asian Agri as a partner company”.
The program also intends to encourage school’s community (teachers, students, parents/school committee) and the surrounding communities to work together through school garden and environmental management in a positive way using their spare time.
”We utilize the idle land to plant oil palm trees which will create economic value, by selling the products and earning the profit that can be used to support students’ activities in line with the School Based Management (SBM) program,” said Head Regional Office Asian Agri, Sahrul Hasibuan at the inauguration ceremony of Sekolah Sawit Lestari which was attended by Regent of Batanghari, Hasyirsyah.
Regent of Batanghari, Hasyirsyah, appreciated Asian Agri’s program and wished that such good initiatives would be done by other companies in Jambi.
”We need all stakeholders’ good will and collaboration. This program requires government, companies, local communities and other relevant parties to support the positive campaign and sustainable palm oil industry,” said Hasyirsyah.
This is a long-term program in which Asian Agri will provide schools with on-site assistance, learning materials about sustainable palm oil, including field visit, interactive discussions and periodic monitoring of oil palm trees planted by the school community. Direct assistance and the field study can help students to understand well about palm oil best management practice and strengthen public awareness of environmental sustainability from school communities.
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About Asian Agri:
Asian Agri is one of the leading private companies in Indonesia producing crude palm oil (CPO) since 1979 and employs around 25,000 people today. Since 1987, Asian Agri has been a pioneer of the Indonesian government’s Trans-National Government Migration (PIR-Trans) program. Today, the company manages 100,000 Ha of land and partners 30,000 smallholder families in Riau and Jambi who operate 60,000 Ha of palm oil plantation.
Asian Agri’s success in becoming one of the leading CPO companies has been acknowledged internationally with the ISO 14001 certification for all of its operations. Its Learning Institute in Pelalawan, Riau, as well as its nursery research center in Kampar, Riau are ISO 9001 certified. In addition, Asian Agri’s R&D Center in Tebing Tinggi has also obtained certification by the International Plant-Analytical Exchange at the WEPAL lab at Wageningen University in The Netherlands, for its high standards.
More than 85% of both owned plantations in North Sumatra, Riau & Jambi provinces & scheme smallholder plantations in Riau & Jambi provinces have been RSPO certified.
All plantations have also been ISCC-certified (International Sustainability & Carbon Certification), including plantation owned by smallholders
Out of 20 mills, 14 have received certification from ISPO (Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil where as the remaining mills have gone through stringent ISPO audit process. It is targeted to have both RSPO & ISPO certification completed by 2016.
For further information, please contact:
| Elly Mahesa Jenar |
| Corporate Communications Manager |
| E-mail: Elly_Mahesa@www.asianagri.com |
| DID: +62 230 1119 |
| HP: +62 811 8776 729 |
