Sabah aiming for full RSPO compliance by 2025

SANDAKAN: The Sabah Forestry Department is working to identify and sort out land issues to help the state’s palm oil industry meet its target of full compliance under the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) by 2025.

Sabah Forestry Department chief conservator of forests Datuk Sam Mannan said by meeting the standards set under RSPO on environment and governance, the state would be able to compete effectively with other countries as a sustainable palm oil producer.

RSPO is an international nonprofit organisation that promotes sustainable palm oil products through global standards.

“The whole of Sabah will become certified by 2025, and this can be achieved by pooling all players, including smallholders, to achieve economies of scale and efficiency,” he said during a media briefing at the Sabah Forestry Department Office, here, recently.

He said the department was working with palm oil players under the RSPO jurisdiction programme as the industry assumed a key role in contributing to the state’s exports.

Mannan said one major initiative undertaken was to assess and define the types of forests.

By scanning forests and separating them into categories such as native land, forest reserve or heavy carbon stock areas, it would facilitate analyses and policy decisions.

However, there are still challenges in the jurisdiction process, particularly in sorting out the definitions for land with high conservation value (HCV) and what constitutes deforestation.

This, according to Mannan, was important in sorting out compensation as well as forests that needed to be set aside and not to be touched for any purpose.

According to RSPO principles and criteria, growers are required to complete HCV assessment on land for new plantings starting from November 2005.

RSPO technical director Salahudin Yaacob said: “Any planting after 2005 must be done together with a HCV study and any conversion of land must not impinge HCV areas.”

He said this was necessary as RSPO certification would not be granted if any planting was done on HCV areas after 2005.

Any conversion of HCV land, he added, would have to be accompanied by a compensation plan evaluated and approved by the RSPO panel.

Cynthia Ong, board chair and chief executive facilitator of Forever Sabah, a non-governmental organisation, told the briefing that discussions were necessary as to the parties that should be compensated for deforestation in land areas under HCV after 2005.

“Does this involve the state government, which has to compensate for land under the Total Protected Areas (TPA)? This is still up for discussion,” she added. Bernama

The whole of Sabah will become certified by 2025 and this can be achieved by pooling all players, including smallholders, to achieve economies of scale and efficiency. DATUK SAM MANNAN Sabah Forestry Department chief conservator of forests