Promoting Environmental Management: A Series of Innovations from KPI RU III Plaju
PT Kilang Pertamina Internasional/Pertamina Patra Niaga Refinery Unit III Plaju (RU III Plaju) has initiated a social innovation called Belida Musi Lestari: Berdikari, which is an ecosystem model for independent aquaculture cultivation.
Belida Musi Lestari: Berdikari serves as a response to unsustainable and suboptimal aquaculture practices, coupled with the threat of extinction of the endemic belida fish due to rampant illegal fishing that triggers serious ecosystem degradation around the river.
The programme is implemented through five pillars. First, Berdikari Benih to ensure independent availability of fish seeds through natural and artificial spawning. Second, Berdikari Proses, which emphasises efficient aquaculture management. Third, Berdikari Pakan, which implements innovations in processing independent feed from household and market waste to reduce production costs.
Fourth, Berdikari Produk, which involves downstreaming fisheries with diversification of value-added products. Fifth, Berdikari Pengetahuan, focusing on knowledge transfer as the foundation and effort for sustainability.
This programme, involving 307 community members from eight categories of vulnerable groups, has successfully scaled up the fisheries business and developed an integrated fisheries learning centre. Financially, the programme has increased fish sales results by 809%, or around Rp760 million.
From an environmental perspective, the programme has addressed waste challenges by processing 36 tons of food waste into fish feed or pellet food waste. The programme has also introduced the utilisation of plastic pallet waste from the refinery into fish pond walls through the “Eco Aquatic Block” innovation, which has obtained a patent certificate and helps reduce pond wall landslides.
In terms of conservation, the Belida Musi Lestari: Berdikari programme has successfully conserved four species of belida fish native to South Sumatra that were nearly extinct. Meanwhile, in terms of sustainability, the programme has also produced 30 community learning centres equipped with two learning models and 18 fisheries education classes.
Another innovation is Integrated Multi Tropic Aquaculture (IMTA), which reduces water usage and improves water quality. This system is a sustainable aquaculture method with a Bio-Treatment approach, prioritising circular economy principles, by utilising non-hazardous waste from the refinery as IMTA material to transform waste into new resources.
The IMTA system increases the productivity of breeder communities from one commodity to three commodities, namely consumption fish, silk worms, and indigofera. This multi-trophic approach has proven more efficient than conventional mono-trophic systems, while maintaining the sustainability of aquatic ecosystems.
In addition, there is the innovation of an Eco-Friendly Fish Smoking Condenser Tool, which can increase the productivity of smoked fish businesses in a more environmentally friendly manner. This first innovation in South Sumatra optimises heat through traps so that no smoke is wasted and accelerates the smoking process while being environmentally friendly. The smoke is then processed into liquid smoke through condensation.
As a result, communities around the smoked fish production sites are no longer disturbed by air pollution caused by the fish smoking process. This maintains harmony between SMEs and the community.
For these various innovations, RU III Plaju received the 2025 PROPER Company Performance Rating Programme award from the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK) with a Gold ranking. This award is given as appreciation for the company’s commitment to sustainable environmental management.
As information, the PROPER award is routinely held as an effort to increase companies’ compliance with environmental regulations. The award is given using several parameters. PROPER is a public disclosure programme for environmental performance assessment.