A rare confrontation occurred in corporate Singapore yesterday when environmental group Greenpeace levelled allegations of deception at a major listed firm just three hours before its annual general meeting (AGM).
Greenpeace’s intervention - it accused palm oil giant Golden Agri-Resources of lying to shareholders about its environmental standards - was the strongest direct action it has ever staged here.
It was clearly aimed at highlighting the issues ahead of Golden Agri’s AGM and forced an equally dramatic response from the company.
Golden Agri rushed out a statement just 30 minutes before the meeting, saying it had suspended from duty a manager responsible for the plantation at the centre of the accusations.
The firm added that it has commissioned an independent study to investigate the claims, and stressed that it tries to meet conservation protocols.
It also pointed out the importance of the palm oil industry to Indonesia.
Talks between Greenpeace and Golden Agri ground to a halt early last year as the palm oil company continued to carry out what the conservation group regarded as unsustainable deforestation.
Greenpeace added fresh evidence to the simmering row with detailed allegations at a low-key press conference in Novotel Clarke Quay hotel yesterday attended by just four journalists.
It presented evidence that it claims shows a Golden Agri subsidiary continuing to flout Indonesian law and that nation’s commitment to a pact promoting sustainable palm oil production.
Mr Bustar Maitar, a forest team leader for Greenpeace South-east Asia, said: ‘We are asking all buyers to stop business if they don’t want to be involved in the deforestation in Indonesia.’
The Greenpeace team of three from Jakarta did not attend the Golden Agri AGM at Holiday Inn Atrium hotel. The media was also barred from attending.
Greenpeace got new information on Golden Agri, one of the world’s largest palm oil companies, after the firm issued its 2009 annual report and a letter to shareholders that renewed its commitment to sustainability.
Mr Maitar said the Greenpeace team went to a plantation operated by Golden Agri subsidiary PT BAT last weekend and found it clearing rainforest bordering an orang utan habitat in central Kalimantan.
Orang utans are listed as endangered and protected by Indonesian law.
Deforestation of peatland that is more than 3m deep is also illegal in Indonesia. Greenpeace said it found proof that this was being done by another unit, PT ALM, in Ketapang in February.
Ms Suzanne Kroeger, a forest campaigner at Greenpeace, said the group had also found that mandatory high conservation value (HCV) assessments had not been carried out at the PT BAT concessions on 14,300ha in central Kalimantan.
Mr Richard Fung, director of investor relations at Golden Agri, said yesterday: ‘We don’t cut down rainforest but secondary forest and degraded areas.
‘We carry out HCV assessments of areas high in biodiversity and don’t develop these areas and we avoid peatland. But we cannot claim to be perfect as our plantations cover an area six times the size of Singapore, so it’s a huge challenge.’
Mr Fung said institutional investors had expressed concerns about the financial impact of big players like consumer goods giant Unilever pulling out of contracts with Golden Agri on the back of the Greenpeace reports.
‘Financially we believe there is no impact as our client base is very wide. Our top 10 customers represent only 32 per cent of the business. There will always be a ready market,’ he added.
Mr Fung pointed out that the company built 125 schools as well as roads and religious buildings in Indonesia as part of its socialisation programmes, which start two years before it begins work on a plantation.
He added that if its study does find Greenpeace’s claims to be accurate, it can replant areas of forest.
Greenpeace wants the protection of all peatlands and a moratorium on deforestation so a proper assessment of the remaining forest can be carried out.
The palm oil industry provides direct employment for about 4.5 million people in Indonesia, and last year generated US$10.4 billion (S$14.2 billion) worth of exports or 11 per cent of Indonesia’s non oil and gas exports.
