WWF Welcomes RSPO Program on Palm Oil Sustainability

20 Nov 2015 --- WWF has welcomed a move by the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) to launch RSPO Next, a voluntary add-on to the RSPO standard that provides a platform for innovative growers to demonstrate best practice in sustainable palm oil and help buyers deliver on their “no deforestation” commitments.

At the organizations’ 13th annual meeting, RSPO Next was featured as the next step for companies that want to build on the RSPO Principles & Criteria.

“Continuous improvement was a core design feature of the RSPO, and RSPO Next is a tangible demonstration of this principle being followed,” said Adam Harrison, WWF’s Lead on Palm Oil.

“WWF calls on all RSPO stakeholders to do their part to ensure the success of RSPO Next– Palm oil growers need to commit to implement RSPO Next, palm oil buyers need to commit to buying it and NGOs and banks need to commit to support it.”

At the meeting, the RSPO also focused on how to better deliver on the existing standard, which currently captures 20% of the palm oil industry, representing 12 million tonnes of palm oil and more than 3.2 million hectares of land managed to the organization’s high environmental and social standards.
 
The meeting also witnessed several districts in Indonesia and Malaysia coming forward to pioneer RSPO’s “jurisdictional approach” to certification – applying to a district as a whole rather than individual mills and plantations.  The process brings local governments, palm oil companies, and smallholders together to jointly pursue the same goal and is considered a crucial tool to make it easier for companies to act responsibly.

WWF also welcomed new initiatives to explore ways to improve and maintain the quality of the certification process and outcomes.  
  
“While independent third party assessment is at the heart of RSPO’s ethos, this new initiative also enshrines quality control of those assessments as a priority,” said Harrison.   “It is not just independence we want from the assessors, but to know they can go to a site and ask the right questions and make good judgements on the adequacy of the answers.”
 
Themed “Global Vision | Regional Action: From 2015 to 2020”, RT13 was attended by over 800 representatives from 44 different countries, enabling the stakeholders to learn more about RSPO’s latest efforts to prioritize regional uptake of 100% certified sustainable palm oil (CSPO) in the consuming markets.

“The big idea behind the theme is that while we have a shared global vision on sustainable palm oil, we need to set regional objectives for market uptake to reach 100% CSPO in Europe, 50% in Indonesia and 

Malaysia, 30% in India and 10% in China by 2020,” said Datuk Darrel Webber, Secretary-General of RSPO.

Participants during the three-day conference will explore the integration of environmental and socio-economic prospects towards achieving a common goal. The conference has been addressing the current state of the industry as well as efforts by each region to bolster greater global growth in the sustainable palm oil industry.  

Among the key highlights during RT13 included:
•Jurisdictional certification, which showcases the landscape-level certification initiatives by Sabah, Malaysia and Central Kalimantan & South Sumatera, Indonesia in working towards ensuring that all palm oil produced in these areas are certified sustainable.
•After 4 years of discussions, the concept of Remediation and Compensation Procedures will become a reality as the RSPO Board of Governors, including Producers, Supply Chain, Financial Institutions, Social and Environmental NGO constituencies, has given its endorsement to the procedures. The RSPO welcomes this process as a long sought after potential solution to the contentious topic of addressing and remediating for land cleared without prior HCV assessment.
•Further to the last few months of discussions around legality of concession maps disclosure, the RSPO is now clear on its legal position on this issue in Indonesia and other producing nations, with the exception of Malaysia. The organisation reinforced its continuous support to members who are willing to meet the resolution agreed in the RSPO General Assembly 2013, to make maps public.

Raising awareness has been RSPO’s top priority in facilitating the alignment of both commercial entities and government leaders in respective markets, to understand the best practices and support the globally agreed environmental standards. As a highlight on the progress on new emerging markets for sustainable palm oil, the Guide for Overseas Investment and Production of Sustainable Palm Oil by Chinese Enterprises was presented to the participants for a session of public consultation.