RSPO Moves to Greenwash Conflict Palm Oil by Granting Membership to Astra Agro Lestari 

Indonesia’s second largest palm oil company faces longstanding allegations of land grabbing, intimidation and criminalization of Human Rights Defenders, and permitting irregularities 

JAKARTA/WASHINGTON – TuK INDONESIA and Friends of the Earth groups in the United States, Indonesia, and England/Wales/Northern Ireland condemn the recent decision by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) to grant membership to Astra Agro Lestari (AAL) while impacted communities in Sulawesi report regular protests, occupation of contested land, criminalization of rightsholders, violent clashes between security officers and villagers, and the threatening presence of paramilitary forces. For years, communities have asserted their land was taken without their consent, their waterways degraded, and that AAL subsidiaries are operating without the proper legal permits. 

“The main cause for land conflicts in Sulawesi is AAL’s failure to obtain the Free, Prior and Informed, Consent of rightsholders to operate on their lands,” said Uli Arta Siagian, Campaign Coordinator for WALHI/Friends of the Earth Indonesia. “AAL has not demonstrated that its subsidiaries have ever received FPIC. Yet the right to FPIC is supposed to be a central requirement of RSPO Principles and Criteria, as is respect for human rights, including the rights of Human Rights Defenders.”  

The RSPO’s decision comes at a time when toxic haze from the worst fires in over a decade in Indonesia – largely caused by the clearance of land for palm oil plantations – has enveloped the region, causing over 280,000 cases of respiratory illness and prompting a class-action lawsuit against the Indonesian government. In 2024, AAL announced its application, spurring public calls from Indonesian and international civil society for the RSPO to withhold membership. Since allegations of environmental and human rights harms have been documented, ten consumer goods companies – Colgate-Palmolive, Danone, FrieslandCampina, Hershey’s, L’Oreal, Mondelez, Nestle, PepsiCo, and Procter & Gamble – all RSPO members, have suspended palm oil sourcing from AAL. Numerous investors and pension funds have excluded financing to AAL and its parent companies Jardine Matheson and Astra International. The United Nations has also raised concerns about environmental and human rights impacts with AAL, Jardine Matheson, Astra International, and the Government of Indonesia. 

AAL’s sister company PT Agincourt Resources, another member of the Jardine Matheson Group, is embroiled in controversy around its operations of the Martabe Gold Mine in Sumatra. According to media reports, the company’s operations are linked to deforestation, watershed instability, and threats to the survival of the critically endangered Tapanuli orangutan. Following deadly floods in Sumatra in November 2025 that killed over 1,110 people and 11 percent of the Tapanuli orangutan population, the Indonesian government revoked the permit of PT Agincourt Resources only to allow the company to resume mining operations in April 2026. According to Forests & Finance, since 2016 some of the largest financiers in the Jardine Matheson Group, which includes AAL and PT Agincourt Resources, are Bank Mandiri, Bank of China, Bank Panin, BlackRock, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial, Mizuho Financial, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation, SMBC and Vanguard. 

“The RSPO’s decision to grant membership to AAL is further evidence that destructive companies can use the body to hide from accountability,” said Gaurav Madan, Senior Forests and Land Rights Campaigner at Friends of the Earth U.S. “As the devastating impacts of the climate crisis are felt with increasing intensity, the RSPO presents a façade of responsibility while environmental and human rights abuses persist. AAL’s membership in the RSPO is another step toward greenwashing conflict palm oil. Consumer brands and investors that have sanctioned AAL and its parent companies should conduct independent due diligence and push for meaningful remedy for impacted communities.” 

Numerous studies have shown the RSPO’s inadequacy in addressing deforestation, environmental degradation, and human rights abuse. These include findings that systemic and widespread non-adherence to RSPO standards contributes to ongoing land conflicts, labor abuses, and forest destruction; that there is no difference between plantations certified by the RSPO versus those not certified in terms of environmental and social sustainability; and that the RSPO’s compliance system is ineffective and fails to enforce sanctions, allowing members to evade consequences. 

“Granting AAL RSPO membership exposes the body’s fundamental failure as a sustainability mechanism,” said Linda Rosalina, Executive Director of TuK INDONESIA. “Financiers should not rely on RSPO membership to justify continued financing of companies driving environmental destruction and human rights abuses. Certification is not a justification for abuse. Indonesian banks such as Bank Mandiri should comply with Indonesia’s prudential banking principle and be held accountable for their role in financing AAL’s abuses.” In 2024, TuK INDONESIA filed a lawsuit against Bank Mandiri over its financing of AAL for violating its environmental, social, and governance commitments. The case has been recommended for judicial review by Indonesia’s Supreme Court. 

The RSPO’s decision to grant AAL membership isn’t the only recent instance where the RSPO’s flawed logic is on display. In Liberia, the RSPO recently lifted a stop-work order on another palm oil company – Golden Veroleum Liberia (GVL). In 2018, the RSPO found that GVL coerced and intimidated rightsholders into signing agreements with the company, didn’t receive FPIC from impacted communities, and destroyed local sacred sites. A few years later, another international body – the High Carbon Stock Approach – concluded that GVL had destroyed 1,000 hectares of Liberia’s Upper Guinea forest – a globally-significant ecosystem home to local communities and endangered chimpanzees. Last year the RSPO lifted the stop-work order it had placed on GVL – despite the company failing to fulfill the terms of the RSPO’s decision, sparking international condemnation. Earlier this year a formal complaint was filed against GVL with Liberia’s Environmental Protection Agency alleging the failures of voluntary corporate mechanisms. 

Media contacts: 
Lindsay Tice, Friends of the Earth U.S., +1 202-783-7400 ext. 8403, [email protected]
Uli Arta Siagan, WALHI, +628 2182 61 9212, [email protected]
Linda Rosalina, TuK Indonesia, +6281219427257, [email protected]