AsianScientist (Nov. 24, 2015) – By Natalie Heng – The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) gathered some 800 participants from 44 countries at its 13th annual meeting in Malaysia, on November 17-20, 2015, to define global action plans in the next five years and new certification standards on the global supply chain of palm oil.
The RSPO is a nonprofit association that facilitates dialogue among oil palm producers, traders, NGOs and other stakeholders to develop and implement global standards to minimize the negative impact of oil palm cultivation on the environment and communities in regions that produce the commodity.
The meeting finalized the RSPO NEXT, a standard which RSPO officials say should be formalized by early next year as a voluntary addendum to the RSPO’s existing principles and criteria.
“Over the past year we have seen enormous progress in the agenda we’ve pursued,” said RSPO co-chairperson Biswaranjan Sen in his welcome address, which noted the development of RSPO certified areas. “The total global certified areas increased by nine percent, led by Malaysia and Indonesia. Africa saw a 37 percent increase, with another 30,000 hectares which were certified in the rest of Asia.”
Sen added it is imperative for the RSPO to become a “more agile organization” in how it helps and equips players in industry, civil society and government with the right tools and guidance to help further the cause of sustainable palm oil.
“More needs to be done to track the impact of sustainable palm oil on the ground,” he stressed.
The meeting sessions also tackled sustainable palm oil guidelines for China, social and labor issues, leveraging the RSPO trademark, conserving high carbon stock forests and addressing the risk of palm fruits derived from questionable plantation areas making their way into the certified sustainable palm oil (CSPO) supply chain.
In a press conference, RSPO secretary-general Darrel Webber said regional targets for the uptake of CSPO have been set at 100 percent by 2020 for Europe, 50 percent for Indonesia and Malaysia, 30 percent for India, and 10 percent for China.
“These [targets] are very difficult to reach, but we are trying,” he said, noting that building consumer awareness will play an important part in achieving these.
One initiative will be a digital campaign to reach out to consumers in Europe, slated for launch in 2016. This involves the development of an RSPO trademark app that will enable consumers to identify and geo-tag products with the RSPO trademark eco-label, adding an interactive element to outreach efforts.
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Source: SciDev.Net; Photo: Bernard Dupont/Flickr/CC.
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