InfoSAWIT, JAKARTA – Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) recently launched the revision of Principles and Criteria of 2024 – the significant standard to deliver the positive for RSPO members, including palm oil (plantation) companies. But the revision raised critics from the environmental groups by saying that the revision could weaken the deforestation protection which was as the main commitment of RSPO itself.
Grant Rosoman, Senior Advisor Greenpeace International was sorry for that revision. He thought, RSPO loosened its commitment to ‘no deforestation’ principles that should become the core of mission in RSPO. One change that Greenpeace discussed was the elimination of firm definition about high carbon stock (HCS) which was formulated through the collaboration among the companies, stakeholders, scientists, and environmental campaigners.
Rosoman thought, the new definition of HCS would enable to continue deforestation with the approached by comparing the potential to keep carbon from palm oil plantations that substituted forest areas, not prioritized the forest conservation itself. “By this definition, many would ignore the forest conservation. RSPO should not deliver gap/space for the companies to get area conservation that would deliver impacts for the loss of natural forests,” Rosoman said in the official statement, as InfoSAWIT quoted, Sunday (27/10/2024).
Besides, in the 2024 new P&C, the deforestation after November 2018 would be allowed if the companies obeyed remediation and compensation as the regulation. For Rosoman, the approach would not be enough namely after European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) would be implemented. He thought, RSPO should decide the time limit about absolute deforestation so the standards would be in harmony with many countries particularly in Europe. “RSPO should confirm the relevant standards and would be acknowledged for the next years namely to fulfill the market needs in European Union,” Rosoman emphasized.
He also criticized the pressures from palm oil companies to weaken the regulation about deforestation namely in Europe. Some companies, he continued, encouraged to postpone their commitment in ‘clean’ supply chain by 2025 or even more that would enable deforestation practices happening within loosen monitoring.
Meanwhile, Kiki Taufik, Head of Global Forest Campaign, Greenpeace Indonesia was also sorry about the approach of RSPO to the accountability of the companies. He thought, some palm oil companies used the ‘shadow’ entities in abroad jurisdiction to avoid their obligation about environment, including their commitment to stop the deforestation.
“RSPO should implement accountability in the company’s groups level to confirm that there would be no deforestation by the companies that got the same control with the members that got certification. Declaring would not be enough to show their incredible commitment on environmental standards,” Taufik said.
He also appreciated the decision of RSPO that banned palm oil plantation development in the peat. He thought, this would be very significant to always protect the natural conservation in Indonesia and prevent the fire in the peat which always made smoke in the regions and produced green-house gas emission. Taufik urged RSPO to immediately publish ‘no palm oil policy’ in the peat to maintain the valuable ecosystem.
To respond the critics, RSPO in its official statement claimed that the standards were formulated by having a very long process, involving the members in the transparent and inclusive mechanisms. The standards were proposed to be adopted and declared in the RSPO Assembly in the City of Bangkok, Thailand on 13 November 2024.
RSPO Secretariat thought, one main aspect from the new standards was to reinforce the commitment on human rights, namely the indigenous people and the local’s rights. RSPO confirmed that there would be no efforts to weaken free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) conditions in the revision. The multi-stakeholder organization would be committed to involved the people that got the impacts (in palm oil plantation development) so they would get the available information and would agree before having palm oil plantation development around their circumstance.
To reinforce FPIC implementation, RSPO would be in cooperation with its members, stakeholders, and social organizations to make sure that the standards would be implemented in the regions where they faced issues about area cultivations.
Since 2005, RSPO banned to conserve primary forests, and since November 2018, it has banned deforestation based on high conservation values (HCV) and high conservation stock (HCS). In the 2024 revision, RSPO develop HCV and HCS approached which got more integration to solve the implementation challenges. The approaches emphasized the proxy, such as, carbon storage above and underground, showed the integrated HCV – HCSA assessment manual that combined the components from SCSA toolkit.
RSPO certification standard would be adjusted with EUDR. Even though EUDR could be postponed, RSPO would always prepare the obedience for its members. In this very short, RSPO would launch the new traceability system digitally called ‘Prisma’ that would enable the members to provide geolocation data based on EUDR, would ease to fulfill RSPO certification process and EUDR terms and conditions.
As the global scale standards, RSPO would do the best to remain relevant with any regulation in the countries, including about no deforestation, human rights, labors, and other sustainability issues, such as, gender, pesticides, and water management.
By the implementation of the 2024 P&C, RSPO would be committed to always promote sustainable palm oil production which is the same among the social, economic, and environmental advantages. RSPO hoped to always get collaboration with every stakeholder to confirm that the standards would be implemented as same as the high integration and transparency to create more sustainable and responsible palm oil industries globally. (T1)
