IOI and Grassroots issue joint statement on IOI Pelita land dispute resolution process
Staff Writer |
The IOI Pelita land dispute in Sarawak involves RSPO founding member IOI Group for whom this is a legacy issue which was inherited in 2006 through the purchase of Rinwood Oil Palm Plantation’ shares in their joint venture with Pelita (Sarawak State Land Custody and Development Authority).
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In 2010 a complaint was submitted against IOI Pelita Plantation by Grassroots on behalf of the communities of Long Teran Kanan.
In 2013 the case was handed over to the RSPO Dispute Settlement Facility for further action in moving the resolution process forward; however, no significant progress was achieved.
In 2015 stakeholders attempted to resolve the case through a state-led approach using a mediated settlement, but did not succeed.
The lack of a robust Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) process as well as insufficient consultations with the affected communities derailed this initiative.
It was at that time when the scope of settlement got expanded to include another 5 villages, in addition to the original 2 in the legal claim, bringing the number of communities participating in the conflict resolution to 7. In 2016 the case reverted to the Complaints Panel (CP) for resolution.
In 2017 a renewed effort was made to resolve the conflict as stakeholders and IOI started exploring a potential to jointly arrive at a sustainable and agreeable set of actions.
Subsequently, IOI and Grassroots went on several joint visits to the affected communities to gather input which would help inform the drafting of the Resolution Plan.
A new resolution plan was crafted incorporating Grassroots’ recommendations to reflect the aspirations of the communities, FPIC and RSPO standards. The CP provided IOI with detailed and comprehensive comments and these too were addressed and incorporated in the Resolution Plan.
The Resolution Plan was submitted to the RSPO CP for approval at the end of June 2018.
The Plan follows a 3-stage approach: 1) building communities’ capacity, awareness and governance, 2) claims identification and validation, mainly through participatory mapping, and 3) negotiations for fair and lasting resolution of the conflict.
The process is designed to conform to RSPO’s Principles & Criteria (P&C) requirements, particularly on implementing FPIC methodology. It has integrated the views of communities articulated in Grassroots’ previous recommendations.
This Plan received the CP’s conditional endorsement at the end of June 2018. It was subsequently presented to all affected communities during a 7-day long visit on June 30 – July 6, 2018.
The main purpose of this “socialisation†exercise was to explain the Resolution Plan and to seek communities’ consent for its implementation. Grassroots, Pelita and an RSPO representative participated alongside IOI’s team in this socialisation program. A non-binding consent from communities’ appointed leaders is a necessary prerequisite for the CP’s final endorsement of the Plan. ■