The 16th Annual Roundtable Conference on sustainable palm oil ended last week with more than 850 representatives from the global palm oil industry agreeing to adopt a new certification standard, reports the Malay Mail.
Roundtable of Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) chief executive, Datuk Darrel Webber, welcomed the new principles and said, “Today, we endorsed a universal, transformative, and integrated agenda, intended to strengthen transparency and inclusivity in the RSPO system, increase implementation of the RSPO standard, boost market uptake of SPO through shared responsibilities, and create an enabling environment for our shared vision of market transformation.”
The new standard - P&C (Principles and Criteria) 2018 - intends to bring about economic prosperity, strengthen social development, and protect the environment across the sustainable palm oil value chain.
The new standard will come into effect immediately, with the provision of a one-year transition period for palm growers who are members of the RSPO, the report said.
The Review Process
According to Webber, the new standard is an outcome of a collaborative, multi-stakeholder review process that was launched by the RSPO in March 2017.
It involved two 60-day public consultations, 18 face-to-face events in 13 countries, six task force meetings, and an unprecedented participation by the civil society.
The review process ended in October of this year, and received almost 11,500 individual stakeholder comments.
These were tabled, ratified and voted during the general assembly on 15 November.
Apart from the P&C also resulted in the development of an additional, separate standard specifically aimed at independent smallholders. It is due for ratification in November of 2019.
Environmental And Social Standards
RSPO’s P&C comprise a set of environmental and social standards, which are binding for member companies in order to meet its certification standard.
It is reviewed every five years and benchmarked against the International Social and Environmental Accreditation and Labelling Alliance, a global membership association for credible sustainability standards.
RSPO’s key focus-areas include checking deforestation, protecting peatlands, and strengthening human and labour rights.
The global body has more than 4,000 members including corporate leaders in sustainability, financial institutions, policymakers, academics, and social and environmental non-government organisations.
© 2018 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Dayeeta Das. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
