New evidence prompts calls for buyers and investors to investigate independently of failed RSPO process
The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) has allowed the Fangiono group to continue pumping global supply chains with palm oil that violates No Deforestation, No Peat, No Exploitation (NDPE) commitments. As RSPO opens its annual conference, a cohort of prominent NGOs including Rainforest Action Network (RAN), Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and Forest Peoples Programme (FPP) warn that its handling of a grievance against Fangiono Group’s First Resources has severely undermined confidence in RSPO’s complaints process and the overall integrity of RSPO certification. The organizations call on palm oil buyers and investors to independently investigate the new findings of RAN and EIA.
RSPO failed to uphold the spirit of its Principles & Criteria, and hold member First Resources Ltd, accountable for large scale deforestation carried out by ‘shadow companies’ under FAP Agri and KAS Group (previously Sulaidy Group). This is despite extensive evidence indicating likely common control including common ultimate beneficial owners, shared resources and operational control.
Instead, its Complaints Panel imposed only a three month suspension for failures of transparency. First Resources then presented the outcome as proof of its sustainability credentials, turning a complaint about hidden connections to forest destruction into reassurance for buyers.
Through detailed observations in East Kalimantan, RAN’s investigation reveals that First Resources, FAP Agri and KAS Group all operate through common storage and shipping infrastructure, in which their palm oil output appears to be comingled. Purchasers of RSPO certified First Resources palm oil are at high risk of purchasing deforestation-linked palm oil from KAS or FAP Agri production.
Shared accounting records, management systems, and physical supply routes indicate that First Resources, FAP Agri, and Kalimantan Agro Sejahtera (KAS) likely operate as a coordinated, integrated economic enterprise, despite presenting themselves as separate businesses.
“RSPO’s membership rules allow companies to retain the credibility of certification despite allegations of human rights violations and forest destruction by linked operations beyond its oversight,” said Angus MacInnes, FPP “this undermines the credibility of certification, and buyers cannot reasonably treat RSPO membership as evidence of responsible business conduct in the face of credible contrary evidence.”
“RSPO’s membership rules allow companies to retain the credibility of certification despite allegations of human rights violations and forest destruction by linked operations beyond its oversight,” said Angus MacInnes, of Forest People Programme’s Responsible Finance Programme “this undermines the credibility of certification, and buyers cannot reasonably treat RSPO membership as evidence of responsible business conduct in the face of credible contrary evidence
RAN field investigations traced palm oil from KAS mills through First Resources’ PT Citra Agro Kencana (PT CAK) bulking station, where it appears to be commingled with other supplies and transported onward to refineries by a common fleet of Fangiono-controlled barges. PT CAK’s sourcing disclosures omitted these sources, leaving buyers with an incomplete account of where their palm oil came from.
“If RSPO aren’t prepared to thoroughly investigate and impose meaningful consequences around the use of shadow companies, organisations will continue with these practices, and the forests and the people who depend on them will suffer for it” said Ben Melling, Forest Campaigner EIA.
RAN documented 9,817 hectares of natural forest clearance between January 2021 and May 2026 in the plantations it examined – only part of the group’s operations. Further expansion threatens forests and Indigenous communities in Mahakam Ulu, in Borneo’s upper Mahakam watershed.
“Buyers cannot trust promises of deforestation free palm oil when the supplier hides where that oil comes from,” said Pete Cooper, Senior Corporate Engagement Specialist at RAN. “Switching mills or buying from another part of the same group leaves those failures intact. Buyers and investors must investigate the full Fangiono group instead of treating a failed RSPO process as reassurance.”
RAN, FPP, and EIA call on buyers and investors to commission credible, independent investigations into the Fangiono group and RAN’s findings. Buyers must suspend sourcing across the Fangiono entities identified in the grievance while these failures remain unresolved.
For more information or comment, please contact:
Pete Cooper
Senior Corporate Engagement Specialist
RAN
+1 915 487 1843
pete@ran.org
Angus MacInnes
Responsible Finance Programme
FFP
+34 309753212
angus@forestpeoples.org
Ben Melling
Forest Campaigner
EIA
+44 20 4549 9038
benmelling@eia-international.org
Notes to editors
- Filed in March 2021, the RSPO complaint against First Resources resulted in an August 2025 decision rejecting group control allegations but imposing a three month suspension for transparency failures. The outcome was upheld on appeal in December 2025.
- RAN’s investigation of Fangiono operations in East Kalimantan.
- EIA’s investigation of Fangiono operations in East Kalimantan.
- FPP’s analysis of the RSPO decision.
- The Gecko Project’s 2023 investigation, Chasing Shadows, documented earlier evidence of connections between First Resources and alleged shadow companies.
- First Resources’ response to allegations from RAN. First Resources has disputed allegations concerning its control of affiliated companies and characterised the RSPO suspension as procedural.
- FAP Agri’s response to allegations from RAN.