Credibility and sustainability are high on the agenda. At the third European Roundtable held on the 3rd June in Amsterdam, RSPO has adopted a set of ambitious regional objectives for market uptake: to reach 100% CSPO in Europe by 2020, 50% in Indonesia and Malaysia, 30% in India and 10% in China. The conference highlighted a number of challenges that RSPO will need to address in order to implement its market transformation vision in Europe and globally.
The roundtable attracted an audience of around two hundred and eighty industries, NGOs and stakeholders from palm oil producing and importing countries.
While all parties agreed that RSPO certified sustainable palm oil (CSPO) is part of the answer and acknowledged the work done by RSPO so far, they did not see any room for complacency and stressed the importance of change.
The RSPO Board of Governors will discuss the adoption of RSPO+, a set of additional sustainability criteria which most innovative members will be able to integrate into their certification process. Among the biggest sustainability challenges, Jonathon Porritt, Forum for the Future and chair of the High Carbon Stock Study, highlighted a need “for a robust methodology to balance forest protection with the socio-economic interest of local communities.”
Driving up market demand in all companies and sectors is another key challenge RSPO needs to address, particularly in Europe, as there is no better place than the EU for RSPO members to work together to drive uptake of CSPO.
To meet the credibility challenge, Biswaranjan Sen, co-chair of the RSPO Board of Governors and VP Chemicals Procurement & Supply Procurement at Unilever stressed that RSPO is not a club, and that the organisation has taken serious measures to suspend or expel non-compliant members earlier this year, and has revamped its complaint panel. Another positive signal came when Annisa Rahmawati, Forest Campaigner, Greenpeace said she gave RSPO 7/10 score when asked about the potential of RSPO to meet the sustainability challenges. Greenpeace have been among the critical of the NGOs, and yesterday it was clear that they did not support a Palm Oil boycott.