Palm oil watchdog urged to take ‘giant leap’ to save forests

KUALA LUMPUR: The global watchdog for the palm oil industry must strengthen its standards to require all members to commit to ending deforestation – or risk becoming irrelevant, an increasing number of growers, investors and green experts say.

The Kuala Lumpur- based Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), comprising producers, buyers, consumers and advocacy groups, is conducting a review of its standards.

It aims to publish new guidelines in November that will cover the next five years.

Presently, the RSPO demands https://rspo.org/key-documents/ certification/rspo-principles-andcriteria its members should not cultivate oil palm trees on land designated as primary forest or forest with a “high conservation value”, which includes important biodiversity, ecosystems and sacred sites.

“The standards are strong and tough, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be made stronger or tougher,” said Carl ��ek-Nielsen, chief executive director of United Plantations, which grows oil palm in the world’s top-two producers, Malaysia and Indonesia.

��ek-Nielsen, who also co-chairs the RSPO, called for “a total commitment” by all its members to zero deforestation.

“If they can address that big elephant in the room, they will not just take a big leap forward – it will be a giant leap forward and show a level of commitment unseen within the commodity sector today,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Palm oil is the world’s most widely used edible oil, found in everything from margarine to cookies, and soap to soups.

��ut the industry has come under unprecedented scrutiny in recent years - not only from the mounting influence of activists, but also from consumers - and has been blamed for deforestation, forest fires and exploitation of workers.

Faced with such pressures, many large palm growers have made pledges to slow or end deforestation, while major buyers like Nestle, PepsiCo and Unilever have committed to zero deforestation and to source only sustainable palm oil by 2020.

The RSPO faces the tough task of trying to please members with different interests at a critical time for the industry.

Ramping up the pressure, earlier this month about 90 institutional investors, including banks and pension funds, representing more than US$6.7 trillion in assets under management, called on the RSPO to ban deforestation and clearing of peatlands, and to strengthen provisions for workers’ rights.

“RSPO is at a critical junction,” said Julie Nash, director of food and capital markets at US-based sustainability lobby group Ceres. — Reuters