Category: publication

Vegetable oils: from fiction to facts

Vegetable oils: from fiction to facts

It was my pleasure to support the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Indonesian Auditor Network, and Khaled Obaideen during their workshop “SDGs and vegetable oils”. The discussion on virgin forests versus timber plantations, oil palm and deforestation, and forest fires versus wildfires was an eye-opener for many. After some 30 years of grifters poisoning the public perception with oversimplified claims, bringing facts back into the debate is a long and tedious uphill battle.
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Jack “Humpty” Dunphy had a great fall…

Jack “Humpty” Dunphy had a great fall…

Hard-core flerfer Jack “Humpty” Dunphy (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClchUlR1KQErN_WdNb0IPHg) decided to reply to my comments on a YouTube video by my favorite flerfer Jouke (https://youtu.be/K-CLgG9uyD4). To no surprise, he took the bait of my channel name (Jack of all Trades) and flaunted his ignorance of the full line it refers to. Yes, there is indeed a part stating ‘master of none’ but there is more, so much more! Watch till the end as the trap closes and all the King’s horses and all the King’s men cannot put Humpty together again.

Certification VS Conservation in Natural Resource Management (Guest Lecture IPB University, ESL)

Certification VS Conservation in Natural Resource Management (Guest Lecture IPB University, ESL)

In late 1990, the Smartwood Programme (Smartwood) of the Rainforest Alliance was the first forestry certification initiative to award a certificate in Indonesia. The leading local organization, the Indonesian Ecolabelling Institute (Lembaga Ekolabel Indonesia or LEI) emerged more or less parallel to the FSC. Ever since, FSC and LEI have engaged in a slow waltz toward mutual recognition. Today – two decades later – about half a dozen separate initiatives are active in Indonesia. in addition, forestry certification catalyzed new approaches and initiatives to improve forestry, including stepwise certification (Nussbaum and Simula 2005; White and Sharshar 2006), timber legality verification (Anonymous 2004; Van der Pol, Wit and Savenije 2005; TFF and Form 2004), and High Conservation Value Forests (HCVFs; see Jennings et al. 2003; Daryatun et al. 2002). This proliferation of initiatives indicates a serious and diverse interest in the business of forestry certification.
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Lessons Learned from Mandatory Certification (Tantangan dan Rekomendasi Langkah Bersama menuju Keberpihakan Uni Eropa terhadap ISPO)

Lessons Learned from Mandatory Certification (Tantangan dan Rekomendasi Langkah Bersama menuju Keberpihakan Uni Eropa terhadap ISPO)

Indonesia has ample experience with attempts to create synergy between various standards, with a very simple conclusion: standards are like water and oil. Mixing standards requires ample effort, either by mechanical excitement or high-tech chemistry. Even then they tend to separate out due to false perceptions of superiority, i.e. one standard is “better” than the other. The futility of such wet dreams becomes clear once we see these standards “in action”. The very same auditor verifying the “superior” standard also verifies the “inferior” standard and both tend to get reduced to the lowest common denominator.
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Commodity-driven Deforestation in Indonesia (FGD “Respon dan Posisi Indonesia terhadap Draft Delegated Regulation Uni Europa”)

Commodity-driven Deforestation in Indonesia (FGD “Respon dan Posisi Indonesia terhadap Draft Delegated Regulation Uni Europa”)

EU 2019 Report … on the status of production expansion of relevant food and feed crops worldwide (draft)
  • Indicates that 10-30% tree cover is debatable, but the continues to work with >10% threshold
  • Ignores potential for forest to grow as well as actual land use, as satellite imagery cannot accurately identify either
  • Assumes deforestation is solely driven by the main commodity, a serious oversimplification
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