Posted on
08 October 2010
Global production of sustainable palm oil
has doubled so far this year, meaning that
buyers have access to more palm oil than
ever before that was produced without damaging
biodiversity, according to new figures from
the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).
“Annual production capacity
of RSPO-certified sustainable palm oil jumped
over the 3 million tonnes mark last month,
showing the steepest increase thus far since
certification began in August 2008,” according
to the Roundtable.
With current global
palm oil production projected at around
46.6 million tones annually, about 6.4 percent
of this production is now certified as sustainable
by the RSPO – up from 3.2 percent a year
ago.
“This really shows that
some palm oil producers are working hard
to make certified sustainable palm oil a
world standard,” said Cherie Tan. “However,
these producers account for less than 20
percent of the producers represented in
the RSPO.
“All RSPO producers
must commit to progress, and to adopt time
bound plans towards certification.”
WWF released the Palm
Oil Buyers’ Scorecard in October 2009 showing
that the majority of European palm oil buyers
were failing to buy certified sustainable
palm oil, despite its availability and the
previous commitments by many companies to
purchase it. WWF will release its next edition
of the Scorecard in the last quarter of
2011.
So far this year, about
60 percent of the sustainable palm oil produced
has been bought, the RSPO said. In 2010's
first quarter, the overall market uptake
of sustainable palm oil was 95 percent,
according to the RSPO.
This represents a positive
commitment by a handful of European buyers,
where buyers are more responsive to environmental
and social issues, WWF said.
But similar actions
need to be taken by more palm oil buyers
in Europe, as well as in other markets,
particularly China and India, which are
the two largest consuming markets of palm
oil. Those two markets represent 31 percent
of total consumption in 2010.
China and India have
the potential to exert massive footprints
on the areas where palm oil is grown and
produced, Tan said.
“Transforming the global
palm oil market cannot be realized unless
the most influential companies in China
and India move toward sustainability,” Tan
said.
The growing demand for
palm oil is adding to the already severe
pressure on the world’s remaining rainforests.
The loss of forest in Indonesia is threatening
the survival of species such as the orang-utan,
the Sumatran tiger, rhino and elephant.
Forest loss and the
draining of peatlands for palm oil plantations
is also contributing to climate change and
displacing local people who rely on the
forest for food and shelter.
Palm oil is one of the
world's fastest expanding crops, with significant
growth in Southeast Asia as well as West
Africa, Papua New Guinea and South America.
It is because of threats
like this that WWF worked with other NGOs
and the palm oil industry to set up the
Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO)
in 2003. Certified Sustainable Palm Oil
has been available since November 2008 and
provides assurance that valuable tropical
forests have not been cleared and that environmental
and social safeguards have been met during
the production of the palm oil.
This week’s figures
come ahead of the Roundtable’s 8th Annual
meeting, which will be held Nov. 8-11 in
Jakarta, Indonesia.
