Posted on 11 November
2010
Jakarta, Indonesia – Members of the Roundtable
for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) have reaffirmed
commitments to protect valuable tropical
forests, agreeing to uphold sustainability
standards on new plantings and focus more
attention on the rapidly growing Chinese
and Indian markets.
The RSPO’s 8th annual
conference, which came to a close today
(Thursday) in Jakarta, was attended by 1000
participants.
Representatives from
buyers, producers, traders and social and
environmental NGOs concluded the four-day
meeting with a decision requiring plantation
companies to show compliance with the RSPO
criteria before starting new plantings.
“The decision to keep
the new plantings procedure shows that palm
oil growers in the RSPO are committed to
protecting important tropical forests and
wildlife,” said Adam Harrison, WWF’s representative
on RSPO’s executive board.
Members also approved
a resolution that will hold buyers accountable
to purchasing certified palm oil according
to time bound plans.
Earlier in the week,
roundtable members also voiced commitments
during a special session to work together
to galvanize the markets for sustainable
palm oil in China and India, which represent
31 percent of total global consumption of
palm oil.
"We need to get
the Indian and the Chinese market involved,
which is difficult to do. Both markets have
only recently opened up to retail,"
said RSPO president Jan Kees Vis.
The RSPO said last month
that about 60 percent of the sustainable
palm oil produced has been bought this year.
And in 2010's first quarter, the overall
market uptake of sustainable palm oil was
95 percent.
There are currently
21 plantation companies that have gained
RSPO certification, representing over 630,000
hectares of land and an annual production
of 3.2 million tonnes of Certified Sustainable
Palm Oil.
“While encouraging,
this is not enough to alleviate the pressure
that growing demands for palm oil is having
on the world’s rainforests, which is why
China and India are important markets,“
added Adam Harrison.
According to WWF, a
global market shift toward more sustainable
palm oil that truly helps to stem forest
loss cannot happen until influential companies
in China and India move toward sustainability.
WWF worked with other
NGOs and the palm oil industry to set up
the 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.
