As a global development platform agreed by the United Nations’ (UN) member countries in 2015, the sustainable development goals (SDGs) consist of 17 goals and 169 targets that can be categorized into three main aspects: Economy, Social, and Environment.
Actually, in Indonesia efforts to realize the SDGs have been pursued before the UN adopted the goals as its global development platform. Through the palm oil industry, for example, Indonesia has been implementing the best practices of sustainability under the program called the Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO), which was designed by the Indonesian government in 2011 and has been implemented since then.
The Palm Oil Agribusiness Strategic Policy Institute (PASPI) reported that the palm oil industry has agricultural multifunctions, consisting of economic function (white function), socio-cultural function (yellow function), water system conservation (blue function), and natural resources conservation (green function). The agricultural multifunctions can be also elaborated into the goals set in the SDGs.
A number of researches and empirical studies have found that the palm oil industry have contributed to the realization of 16 goals of the total 17 goals of the SDGs.
On the economic aspect, the palm oil industry has realized SDG-1 (eradicating poverty); SDG-2 (erasing hunger and malnutrition, and developing inclusive food resilience); SDG-7 (developing sustainable energy sources); SDG-8 (inclusive economic growth and job opportunities); SDG-9 (infrastructrure, industrialization and innovation); SDG-10 (reducing inequality); and SDG-12 (sustainable consumption and production).
On the social aspect, the palm oil industry has realized the SDG-3 (health and welfare); SDG-4 (inclusive quality education); SDG-5 (gender equality); SDG-6 (clean water and sanitation); SDG-11 (development of inclusive, safe and sustainable cities and communities); and SDG-16 (inclusive peace and social justice).
On environmental aspect, the palm oil industry has contributed to the realization of SDG-13 (tackling problem of climate change and impacts); SDG-14 (conservation and sustainable use of water resources); and SDG-15 (sustainable protection of biodiversity, land and forest ecosystems).
“Considering the importance of information on the contribution of palm oil industry in realizing the SDGs as promotional materials to increase the global market acceptance of palm oil and to counter the negative campaigns against the palm oil, then more researches should be conducted to get more comprehensive and updated data from upstream to downstream palm oil industries. Therefore, the government should intensify more researches about the palm oil industry by maximizing the use of the research fund from the oil palm plantation fund management board (BPDPKS),” concluded PASPI Monitor in its report. (*)
Source: wartaekonomi.co.id | Image via environmentalleader.com
