In December 23-24, 2024, WWF Indonesia held a workshop with sustainable palm oil stakeholders, financial institution partners, and sharia finance experts. This workshop aims to find a suitable financial solution for supporting the business sustainability of the RSPO-certified palm oil smallholder cooperative, named Koperasi Rimba Harapan, one of the WWF Indonesia beneficiaries in the sustainable commodity program since 2012. The consultation process also invited key stakeholders such as FORTASBI and RSPO. 

In collaboration with Bank Hijra, and sharia finance experts, WWF Indonesia brought the Koperasi Rimba Harapan to the stage of accessing the finance to achieve the business independence of the established farmer cooperatives. This initiative set a new horizon in reducing the financing gap of the climate mitigation agenda, by involving the sharia finance landscape to the part of the solution. 

A new funding opportunity for climate mitigation effort at the level of smallholder farmers has been opened, by connecting commercial funds with sharia terms as well as sustainability terms through new sharia banking investment product., Combining Mudharabah Muqayyadah (on the investor side) and Murabahah (on the beneficiaries’ side), this solution can help smallholder farmers have a better cashflow management to buy more FFB (Fresh Fruit Bunches (FFB)/ fertilizer)  and save more money for RSPO recertification needs. It also highlighted that separate sharia-based contracts can accommodate financing the RSPO recertification process. A new hope has arisen. This full business case of this report will be soon published.